Book Review: Under Another Sky

Under Another Sky: Journeys In Roman Britain.  Charlotte Higgins.  Vintage. 2014. ISBN 9780099552093.  282 pages (including appendices and index). £9.99 (paperback)

This is a travel book with an archaeological twist.  ‘Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain’ by journalist Charlotte Higgins, tours in country in a trusty old VW camper van to find evidence on the ground and in museums of the Roman occupation of Britain.  The book is written both by geographical area and chronologically.  The story begins with Kent and Essex with local interest in Colchester.  Charlotte Higgins meets up with Philip Crummy, “the authority on Colchester’s archaeology”, to see the site near the Victorian army garrison.  She was told that one day whilst digging two parallel lines which looked like roads were discovered.  “A press officer for the housing development made joke about the chances of their finding a chariot … that [was when], said Crummy, ‘the penny dropped’”.  (The Roman Circus discovery has been the story of the decade and is now featured in the remodelled Colchester Museum.)  Inside the museum the tombstones of the centurion the the 20^th Legion, Marcus Facilis and, officer, Longinus Stapeze are mentioned.  Coins from Camulodunum “tiny gold discs sitting alongside their original moulds, like jam tarts sprung from a baking tin”.

The author weaves into the narrative figures associated with Roman history, such as Boudicca, and eminent archaeologists such as Mortimer Wheeler and Charles Roach Smith.  Philip Morant is mentioned.  This is not a typical history book but one which seeks out the evidence of Roman Britain today through people and well as places. 

As a bonus ‘Under Roman Sky’ contains ample notes and a section at the end of ‘Places To Visit’.  This could easily by a glove-box companion for anyone following in the author’s footsteps.