Archaeology Magazine - September 1965 - 77

judgment will not meet universal
approval, even though all must admit that it is part of a justifiable
reaction against excessive admiration.
Several articles concern Rome's
relations with Hellenisticpowers, a
subject on which Badian has already contributed a great deal in
his Foreign Clientelae (1958).
These include- not to mention several concerning Sulla- "Notes on
Roman Policy in Illyria (230-201
B.c.)" (pp. 1-33) and "Rome and
Antiochus the Great: A Study in
Cold War" (pp. 112-139). The
latter traces the steps by which two
states that did not desire it became
involved in war with each other.
These are valuable contributions
but do contain details with which
all will not agree. Thus, the rather
important role of Illyrian troops
and Demetrius of Pharos at Sellasia hardly warrants the implication that he was the real victor
and the reference to Antigonus
Doson as "the man for whom
Demetrius won the battle of Sellasia" (p. 11). The reference in
connection with the evacuation of
Greece by the Romans in 194 B.c.
to "the strategically quite valueless
city of Corinth" (p. 123) may be
due to the correct realization that
"the fetters of Greece," Demetrias,
Chalcis and Corinth, would be
much less useful to a western
power controlling Greece than they
had been to Macedonia.To such a
power, Ambracia and Anticyra
would be more useful than Demetrias and Chalcis. Actually the
headquarters of the Roman army in
Greece 198-194b.c. was in Phocis.
Yet Corinth, with its port, Lechaeum, would have had strategic
value even for a western power
controlling Greece.
J. A. O. Larsen
University of Missouri

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work of others. In fhis volume she
summarizes this and much other
work, often less archaeologicalthan
is usual in this series, to pierce the
veils of confusion and romance that
obscure from us the Dark Ages.
Neither the material nor the presentation is perhaps so attractive as
in the companion Early Christian
Ireland by the de Paors, but with its
extensive bibliography and varied
illustrations Celtic Britain is a most
useful guide to the rapidly growing
studies of a fascinatingperiod, now
archaeologicallyfashionable.
The sources from which both the
history and literature of the opponents of the Anglo-Saxonshave to
be reconstructedare so tantalizingly
fragmentary and complex that in a
book of this length Mrs. Chadwick
can give only one of several possible interpretations throughout. But
in this way a coherent picture
emerges,not readily obtainable elsewhere. Unfortunately, besides the
difficultiesof compressionthere are
signs of hurried compilation and,
going as it inevitably does beyond
the author's own particular studies,
CELTIC
BRITAIN,
by NORAK. CHADWICK.238 pages, 35 figures, 67 il- it cannot be relied upon in detail.
lustrations. Frederick A. Praeger, For example, to say that the art of
New York 1963 (Ancient Peoples the Picts had its birth and continued to live its own national life in
and Places, 34) $6.95
a world apart is the opposite of
Mrs. Chadwick is a distinguished the demonstrable
facts, which the
scholar who has done much fruitful reader can, however,
find by followwork on the history and literature of
the referencesgiven.
Britain and Gaul in the Late Roman ing
and immediately post-Roman cenRobert B. K. Stevenson
turies. She has written at length ScottishNational Museum
and has stimulated and edited the Edinburgh

OF THEDIQUÍS
ARCHAEOLOGY
DELTA,
COSTARICA,by S. K. LOTHROP.
X,
142 pages, 82 figures, 51 plates, 8
tables. Peabody Museum, Harvard
University, Cambridge 1963 (Papers, Vol. 51) $9.50
In spite of the pioneer research
undertaken by the great Swedish
scholar C. V. Hartman at the turn
of the century, Costa Rica has remained one of the least known archaeological areas of the New
World. This state of affairs is a
result of the unrestrained looting of
ancient cemeteries,which continues
at an increasing pace, combined
with the unhappy tendencyof local
archaeologists to ascribe all Precolumbian remains to the historic
tribes of the country.
Lothrop's excavations of 1948,
in the Diquis region of southern
Costa Rica, are one of the few exceptionsto this dismal picture. Stratigraphie cuts in midden refuse produced a sequenceof pottery cultures
not unlike that worked out for the
Nicoya Peninsula and adjacent Nicaragua in recent years. The earliest
material is monochrome red or
brown ware, associated with crude
figurines covered with fugitive red
slip, and is comparable to pottery
of the Zoned Bichrome period of
Nicoya. Some of the later sherds
represent well known Middle Polychrome types from Nicoya and
Codé polychrome from Panama,
while the most recent deposits are
probably to be associated with
"Classic" Chiriqui pottery from the
Costa Rica-Panamaborder zone.
245

Archaeology Magazine - September 1965

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