Welsh Journals

of the summer of 1925, and the manner in which it was interpreted in the communities themselves, call for a consideration of several influences, but some of the most powerful were derived from the cultural milieu which Huw Walters describes so well. This remains a key area in the study of the social history of the Welsh language and the culture with which it is inextricably linked. It needs to be afforded close attention if historians of Wales, in this generation or the next, are to seek a coherent interpretation of the social expression of the nation as a whole in the period of far- reaching change with which this volume is concerned. Written by one who knows the area intimately, it provides a sensitive portrait of an age of endeavour in a Welsh industrial society, without any indulgence in the myth-making to which a sympathetic hand might so easily be drawn.] J. B. SMITH Aberystwyth REPORT ON THE EXCAVATIONS AT USK, 1965-1976: THE FORTRESS EXCAVATIONS, 1972-1974, AND MINOR EXCAVATIONS ON THE FORTRESS AND FLAVIAN FORT. By W. H. Manning with the assistance of I. R. Scott. University of Wales Press, 1989. Pp. xviii, 194, 33 pis, 76 figs. £ 30.00. The programme of excavations at Usk between 1965 and 1976 was undertaken on behalf of the Department of the Environment, and subsequently the Welsh Office, by the Department of Archaeology at what is now the University of Wales College of Cardiff. The results of the fieldwork, which have been systematically published since 1978, are of crucial significance to the study of the Roman invasion of Wales between c. AD 49 and 75, and also represent an important contribution to our knowledge of the character of legionary bases in a frontier zone at this time. This volume, the most recent of the series, describes the excavation of part of the fortress's internal road system, workshops and an officer's house, and also gives an account of those features which relate to the subsequent and much reduced Flavian installation. In addition to the account of the excavations, there are two substantial interpretative chapters which discuss the form and function of the workshops and officer's house, and the plan of the fortress; the smaller quantities of data on the Flavian fort are also carefully considered. These discussion chapters are well marshalled, tightly argued and benefit from Manning's and Scott's careful research into relevant parallels throughout the empire of this period. Few scholars will wish to take issue with the conclusions about the form and function of the buildings, still fewer with the two alternative plans of the internal layout of the fortress. It is also useful to have contemporary fortress plans from across the empire assembled in one place and at the same scale (figs. 49-54). One of the reasons why a high level of confidence can be attached to the interpretation of the archaeological data is that this volume, like the others in the series, demonstrates that the excavations were undertaken to a standard which must