ARCHITECTURE in MAURETANIAN TINGITANA (N.) Architectural

THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 495 discussion is provided by this very informative, albeit technical, contribution. The appen- dix, consisting of amphorae stamps from the Laecanii workshop, completes the corpus of these stamps, addressed by Bezeczky on several occasions in his research about their wide distribution and Istrian production. Taking into consideration the difficulties arising from the excavation and finds handling ‘strategies’, Bezeczky’s volume manages to further our knowledge of this key Adriatic site, providing, since most of the analysed materials are imports in the region, ample data for comparative and distribution studies relevant for the wider Mediterranean. Readers are informed, by both the papers and the catalogue, about the occurrences of amphorae that have seldom been identified on the eastern Adriatic, such as Gaulish, Sicilian as well as early eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea types. The material is expertly analysed, offer- ing a firm ground for further research about this assemblage or amphorae distribution in general. Moreover, as the publication of pottery and ceramics assemblages from the eastern Adriatic has not always followed the numerous field research projects, an addition to the very few published corpora is welcome. Despite some editorial and contextual glitches (e. g. if there is a section dedicated to epigraphy, why has not all the epigraphy related data been assembled there?), deriving from the unfortunate events during the last phases of the volume’s preparation, as well as minor geographical inconsistencies and spelling errors, the volume is informative, with up-to-date references and richly illustrated. The interpret- ational inaccuracies, mostly related to the site’s architecture and nature, can be overcome by a critical evaluation on the part of the reader, thus not diminishing the work as a whole. With this volume and the presentation of the Castrum’s material, the work of Bezeczky on the Laecanii amphorae corpus, to which he dedicated an important part of his professional career, is further enriched. Finally, the Croatian summary is a welcome addition, which will be appreciated by the local scientific community. Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb ANA KONESTRA [email protected] ARCHITECTURE IN MAURETANIAN TINGITANA M UGNAI (N.) Architectural Decoration and Urban History in Mauretania Tingitana. (Mediterranean Archaeology Studies 1.) Pp. 410, ills, maps, pls. Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 2018. Paper, €40. ISBN: 978- 88-7140-853-8. doi:10.1017/S0009840X2000092X M.’s volume is a substantial work that contributes helpfully to the description and analysis of decorative architectural elements in the province. It also provides an up-to-date catalogue (essentially the second half of the book) of all the bases and capitals known from the key sites in the province. The work has a substantial fieldwork element, and survey, vegetation notwithstanding, plays a major role in the catalogue. The book is well produced and very usefully illustrated with a wealth of plates and figures. Even the fact that it is a work on Mauretania Tingitana at all makes this book significant. The province is quite often at the margins of debates about the Mediterranean world in the classical period, and materiality and decoration are no exception to that rule. From that perspective alone the book is a very welcome addition to the field. The book starts, after a brief presentation of the research questions, in Chapter 2 with a catalogue of past research in Morocco, although the book perhaps did not need all of the The Classical Review 70.2 495–497 © The Classical Association (2020) Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Athens, on 27 Sep 2021 at 18:26:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X2000092X 496 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW section before the analysis on pp. 48ff. of what has been done and where the problems lie for the current study and wider research into the cities and sites of the province. The chapter (and the book as a whole) makes it clear that M. is, in the recording of archaeological evidence and the analysis, having to battle the problems of older archaeological excava- tions and in particular a lack of stratigraphy. Chapter 3 presents an overview of the history of the region from the late second mil- lennium BC to the late antique period. This a useful chapter for those unfamiliar with the chronology of the area, and it deals with many of the open questions regarding chronology and particularly the chronology of the towns: Phoenician phases, ‘Mauretanian’ phases and Roman colonial foundations and their chronologies (which are, in particular, often still disputed). Chapters 4–7 are case studies of Volubilis, Banasa, Sala and Lixus. There are no chapters on Tingi, Zilil or Thamusida, the other main archaeological sites, which does not really matter to the thrust of the book (and is understandable from the perspective of the practi- calities of the fieldwork and/or due to the state of the presentation of the archaeological material), although for completeness it would have been useful for an all-encompassing investigation of the architectural decoration in the province. Chapter 8 is a discussion of the evidence, which in addition looks at the North African and Mediterranean context. The case studies and Chapter 8 tackle some of the key dating issues and the nature of some of the structures and particularly Lixus’ Quartier des Temples, which M. subjects to a cautious and detailed examination of the available evidence (pp. 156–64). The rest of the chapters comprise the catalogue in the same order as the case studies; the catalogues are easy to use and clear. The book is a careful and very thorough analysis in particular of the decorative architectural material. Other evidence is also addressed, but perhaps a more detailed examination of the related inscriptions might have helped, given often quite substantial mentions of them in the text. The discussion and other chapters make clear that there was considerable variety in approaches to the decorative material. There was engagement with official art forms, particularly mediated through Carthage and Spain, but other traditions (local traditions, Punic traditions) also featured substantially. The problem with understanding these traditions and their direct impact on the Roman era is our relatively small amount of knowledge of the pre-Roman picture. M. clearly shows the links between the province and the rest of the Mediterranean (particularly, and naturally, to Carthage and Spain) in various ways but despite these linkages the book, perhaps inescapably, reinforces the sense that the province is a bit on the margins. This is not a criticism, studies of areas marginal to the main centres of power and population in the Mediterranean world are clearly necessary and can contribute much to analyses and histories of wider trends in architecture and decoration. M. does engage (pp. 193–5) with the ideas in L. Revell or D. Mattingly, for instance, but more could have been done with this strand of the work. The question of ‘identity’ is slightly under-developed. Beyond a focus on the self-presentation of the owner of Banasa’s Maison à la Mosaïque de Vénus (p. 192) or the builders of the Palace of the Gordians at Volubilis (pp. 99–102), there is relatively little on what the commissioners of these buildings thought that they were doing when they made choices about the decorative elements of their houses or public buildings. When a choice was made about engaging with a pre-Roman tradition, what did this mean? Was it deliberate or a consequence of what was available (in terms of materials or skills) to the person/people who was/were paying? Of course, the answers to these questions would be hypothetical, but some further engagement with the questions might have been important. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Athens, on 27 Sep 2021 at 18:26:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X2000092X THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 497 One question that emerges from the book, that may be thought of as quite tangential to the wider book, but might illuminate identities in the province, is whether the withdrawal of Roman forces from the south of the province resulted in putting those areas beyond the Roman province. Is this really the case? Would the Roman authorities have perceived that the areas that had been ‘abandoned’ were abandoned or beyond Roman power? Would the Salans, Banasitans or Volubilitanans have thought that they were now not ‘Roman’ in some way? The persistence of provincial dating formulae on epitaphs at Volubilis until a much later date suggests that this is not necessarily true. The volume is a comprehensive assessment of the decorative orders on buildings from the Mauretanian provincial setting. It provides a necessary analysis of previous archaeological work and the resultant claims on the dating and function of the buildings. It also opens up avenues for future research by indicating trends derived from a range of cultural traditions and innovation within the province; useful work could be done in taking forward M.’s conclusions on what the use of the different architectural traditions means for what the commissioners were trying to do in terms of self-display both within the community and to other communities. University of Birmingham GARETH SEARS [email protected] SETTLEMENTS IN ANATOLIA H ALDON (J.), ELTON (H.), NEWHARD ( J . ) (edd.) Archaeology and Urban Settlement in Late Roman and Byzantine Anatolia. Euchaïta-Avkat-Beyözü and its Environment. Pp. xxx + 377, figs, ills, maps.

Load more