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Scholars are taking a greater interest in the study of streets, which appear to be more important to the understanding of the ancient world than previously thought. Streets were in fact very lively, diverse spaces, subject to change over time, in which many different mechanisms operated and daily social contact took place. Eric Poehler is an authority on the urban structure and traffic systems of Pompeii and beyond. His work on these subjects (and extensive on-site analysis) has led to numerous publications in the past two decades on urban planning, street architecture and Roman traffic. These publications have formed a strong foundation for The Traffic Systems of Pompeii. By critically analysing large and complex datasets, Poehler is able to reconstruct the traffic systems of Pompeii and to situate them within the wider history of Roman urbanism and traffic. It should be pointed out that this book is not simply descriptive, but it also provides a methodological framework for other scholars interested in studying ancient streets, their traffic, and its management. The book starts with an overview of modern scholarship on Roman roads and traffic. The evolution of Pompeii’s urban street network from the archaic period to the post-earthquake periods is outlined in chapter 2. Here, Poehler argues for the existence of a master plan around 300 BC for all of Pompeii’s urban form outside the Altstadt. Irregularities in block shape and orientation across the city, once interpreted by scholars as markers of chronological distinction, are explained instead as ‘compromises for both practical (topography, defence) and theoretical (aesthetics) purposes’ (p. 43). The argumentation is strengthened with excavation data (e.g. the existence of a quarry) to show that some chronological differences in the occupation of various parts of the city were reasonable and necessary. The next three chapters offer an in-depth archaeological description and analysis of Pompeian streets. In chapter 3, the different street surfaces (i.e. beaten ashes or battuto, cobbles, lava stones or silex, and debris) are discussed. Chapter 4 examines the architectural elements of the streets: paving stones, curbstones, stepping stones and guard stones. The analysis and interpretation of the 370 so-called guard stones, found at the sides of the streets, is especially noteworthy. Poehler convincingly argues that guard stones served to protect elements of the water infrastructure, such as fountains, from the passing carts, but also the pedestrians on the sidewalks. The wear patterns of the vehicles on the architectural elements of the streets is the subject of chapter 5. Chapter 6 is the heart of the book and brings all the theoretical and technical analyses of the previous chapters together to investigate whether there were traffic systems for the circulation of vehicles in Pompeii. The regularity that lies at the basis of the distinctive wear patterns strongly suggests the presence of a shared behaviour of cart drivers. In order to explore these systems, Poehler clearly analyses the shape of the street network (intersections and corner shapes), one-way and two-way streets and their directionality, and chronological changes. A different and surprising approach is taken in chapter 7, as Poehler takes the reader on a journey into the life of a Pompeian cart driver, named Sabinus. The fictional narrative, accompanied with many references, leads to several discussions about the management of traffic systems. After a thorough analysis of Pompeii, chapter 8 sets the road system into the broader history of Roman urbanism and traffic control. For this, Poehler has included the evidence for traffic in no less than 24 Mediterranean sites in Italy, Algeria, France, Greece and Turkey. The fact that the elemental building blocks of the traffic systems identified in Pompeii (one-way and two-way streets, right-side driving) are identifiable in the survey provides promising feedback for the methods used in the book. However, care should be taken with regard to the uniqueness of each site and its history. Poehler closes the chapter with a short history of Roman traffic management based on legal, literary, historical and epigraphic sources. In the preface of the book, Poehler states that one of the aims of The Traffic Systems of Pompeii is to emphasize the value of archaeological data in solving this ‘archaeological puzzle’ (p. xv). This is borne out throughout the book; the thorough analysis and interpretation of 600 wear patterns, divided into overriding wear, sliding wear and cyclical wear, is especially impressive (chapter 5). The capacity of ruts for the study of vehicular traffic was first explored by Tsujimura (1991), who made a distinction between one lane and two lanes of traffic based on rut pairs. Whereas the presence of ruts can give information on traffic circulation, Poehler shows that the wear on the vertical faces records the direction of travel. He carefully analyses the shape of the wear patterns by the position of the CAJ 30:1, 179–180 © 2019 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research