London's Roman Amphitheatre: Guildhall Yard, City of London

Excavations at the medieval Guildhall Chapel in 1987 revealed Roman masonry foundations, and the next year the structure was identified as London's amphitheater, the very existence of which was unsuspected until then. Extensive excavations were carried out over the decade of the 1990s, and the findings are presented here about the building, use, and abandonment of the structure. The introduction describes the archaeological project itself. A second section follows the archaeological--and presumably historical--sequence, through such stages as the timber amphitheater and surrounding structures AD 75-125, construction of the masonry amphitheater, the final use and demise in the late third to middle fourth centuries, and soil formation after that. Then themes are addressed, among them spectacles and spectators, the cullet dump and evidence of glass working, drainage, and inaccessible remains. Specialist appendices and summaries in French and German are also provided. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)