2019-05-16
This is a reasonably interesting book about Pytheas, a Greek who sometime in the 4th century BC sailed around Britain. Cunliffe provides quite a bit of interesting context, yet I was hoping for more from this book – not least about the Iron Age Britain that Pytheas would have encountered. This is especially as Iron Age Britain is Cunliffe’s big specialty.
And yet, aside from some details on artifacts and settlement plans from a few locations, there was no real depth to the coverage. In the end this is really just a book about about trying to recover details of the journey from a limited number of quoted sources, with some added context for padding.
This could have been a lot more engrossing if focused more on the people and cultures encountered, rather than material finds and literary references.
In the end, I found the book interesting but somewhat too limited in scope to recommend.
Rating: 3/5