Beyond the Edge of the Empire – Caledonians, Picts and Romans by Fraser Hunter

2019-10-18

This is a very niche book on a very niche subject – what the peoples of Scotland were doing around the time of the Roman occupation of England.

The evidence is slight and fragmentary, but Hunter was still able to present a comprehensive summary of main finds, distributions, and competing ideas as to what was happening and where.

Unfortunately, it’s only a short book and Hunter doesn’t throw his hand into outright supporting any particular idea, which is a shame because sometimes I think archaeologists need to speculate a little more and dare to be wrong.

However, Hunter is not alone in being considered and reserved in his assessments, and on the positive side this book is absolutely chock-a-block with useful references, including a few books I hadn’t heard of but have now been added to my wishlist.

Overall, a good assessment of a niche subject which makes the book necessarily short, but I would have liked to have seen more of a summary to conclude it.

Rating: 4/5