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Art and Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2021

Michael Squire*
Affiliation:
King's College London, UK

Extract

I am no doubt showing my prejudice, but I didn't expect a book on Greek acroteria to make for such exciting lockdown reading. Because of their position high up on temple buildings, extant sculpted materials tend to be fragmentary – and hence pushed to the literal and metaphorical corners of modern-day museums. Look to scholarly publications, moreover, and there is a tendency towards classificatory catalogues, markedly less in the way of theoretical discussion (whether about architectural and cultic framing, for example, historical aesthetics, or the intersection between ‘ornamental’ and ‘figurative’ representational modes).

Type
Subject Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

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References

1 Typical is Danner, P., Griechische Akrotere der archaischen und klassischen Zeit (Rome, 1989)Google Scholar.

2 Akroter und Architektur. Figürliche Skulptur auf Dächern griechischer Bauten vom 6. bis zum 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. By Corinna Reinhardt. Image and Context 18. Berlin, de Gruyter, 2018. Pp. x + 598. 249 b/w illustrations. Hardback £118, ISBN: 978-3-11-053880-9.

3 The most important exception, as Reinhardt emphasizes (16–20), is the work of Clemente Marconi: Marconi, C., ‘Kosmos: The Imagery of the Archaic Greek Temple’, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 45 (2004), 211–24Google Scholar; Marconi, C., Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek World (Cambridge, 2007)Google Scholar. Compare also Hölscher, T., ‘Architectural Sculpture: Messages? Programs? Towards Rehabilitating the Notion of “Decoration”’, in Schultz, P. and von den Hoff, R. (eds.), Structure, Image, Ornament. Architectural Sculpture in the Greek World (Oxford, 2009), 5467Google Scholar.

4 Handbook of Greek Sculpture. Edited by Olga Palagia. Ancient Greek and Roman Art and Architecture vol. 1. Berlin, de Gruyter, 2019. Pp. x + 789. B/w illustrations. Hardback £209, ISBN: 978-1-61451-540-1.

5 Beyond the Nile. Egypt and the Classical World. Edited by Jeffrey Spier, Timothy Potts, and Sara E. Cole. Los Angeles, CA, Getty Publications, 2018. Pp. xvi + 344. Colour illustrations. Hardback $65, ISBN: 978-1-60606-551-8.

6 Compare, in particular, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition at the Liebighaus in Frankfurt in 2005–6: Beck, H., Bol, P. C., and Bückling, M. (eds.), Ägypten – Griechenland – Rom. Abwehr und Berühung (Frankfurt am Main, 2005)Google Scholar.

7 Domesticating Empire. Egyptian Landscapes in Pompeian Gardens. By Caitlín Eilís Barrett. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xxi + 445. 100 b/w and colour illustrations. Hardback £64, ISBN: 978-0-19-064135-1.

8 Compare Versluys’ stimulating chapter on ‘Egypt and/in/as Rome’ in Spier, Potts, and Cole (n. 5), 230–6. See also e.g. M. J. Versluys, Aegyptiaca Romana. Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt (Leiden, 2002); M. J. Versluys, ‘Haunting Traditions: The (Material) Presence of Egypt in the Roman World’, in D. Boschung, A. Busch, and M.-J. Versluys (eds.), Reinventing the ‘Invention of Tradition’? Indigeneous Pasts and the Roman Present (Paderborn, 2015), 127–58; M. J. Versluys and C. van Eck (eds.), Beyond Egyptomania. Objects, Styles, and Agency (Leiden, 2018). Compare also E. M. Mol, ‘Object Ontology and Cultural Taxonomies: Examining the Agency of Style, Material and Objects in Classification through Egyptian Material Culture in Pompeii and Rome’, in A. van Oyen and M. Pitts (eds.), Materialising Roman Histories. Beyond Instrumentalism and Representation (Oxford, 2017), 169–90; S. K. Pearson, Egyptian Airs. The Life of Luxury in Roman Wall Painting (Berlin, forthcoming).

9 The Brothel of Pompeii. Sex, Class and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society. By Sarah Levin-Richardson. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xix + 243. 66 b/w illustrations, 10 colour plates. Hardback £75, ISBN: 978-1-108-49687-2.

10 Herculaneum and the House of the Bicentenary. History and Heritage. By Sarah Court and Leslie Rainer. Los Angeles, CA, Getty Conservation Institute, 2020. Pp. viii + 168. Colour illustrations. Paperback £25, ISBN: 978-1-60606-628-7.

11 Multisensory Living in Ancient Rome. Power and Space in Roman Houses. By Hannah Platts. London and New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Pp. xviii + 337. B/w illustrations. Hardback £85, ISBN: 978-1-7883-1299-8.

12 Among other important contributions, see especially D. Howes, Sensual Relations. Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory (Ann Arbor, MI, 2003); J. Day, Making Sense of the Past. Towards a Sensory Archaeology (University Park, IL, 2013); Y. Hamilakis, Archaeology and the Senses. Human Experience, Memory and Affect (Cambridge, 2013).

13 The Altars of Republican Rome and Latium. Sacrifice and the Materiality of Religion. By Claudia Moser. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xvi + 209. 47 b/w illustrations. Hardback £75, ISBN: 978-1-108-42885-9.

14 Cetamura del Chianti. By Nancy Thomson de Grummond. Cities and Communities of the Etruscans. Austin, TX, University of Texas Press, 2020. Pp. xxiii +149. 108 b/w illustrations, 7 maps. Paperback $29.95, ISBN: 978-1-4773-1993-2.

15 The Toga and Roman Identity. By Ursula Rothe. London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Pp. ix + 241. 30 b/w illustrations. Hardback £85, ISBN: 978-1-4725-7154-0.

16 Die Polis als Sieger. Kriegsdenkmäler im archaisch-klassischen Griechenland. By Janett Schröder. KLIO Biohefte n.s. 32. Berlin, de Gruyter, 2020. Pp. x + 342. 13 b/w illustrations. Hardback £91, ISBN: 978-3-11-062604-9.

17 The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany. Edited by Simon James and Stefan Krmnicek. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xxvi + 223. B/w illustrations. Hardback £110, ISBN: 978-0-19-966573-0.

18 Assembling Archaeology. Teaching, Practice, and Research. By Hannah Cobb and Karina Croucher. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 214. B/w illustrations. Hardback £55, ISBN: 978-0-19-878425-8.

19 The Power of Urban Water. Edited by Nicola Chiarenza, Annette Haug, and Ulrich Müller. Berlin, de Gruyter, 2020. Pp. viii + 272. 100 b/w illustrations. Hardback £109, ISBN: 978-3-11-067664-8.

20 Visualizing Harbours in the Classical World. Iconography and Representation around the Mediterranean. By Federico Ugolini. London, Bloomsbury, 2020. Pp. xiii + 238. B/w illustrations. Hardback £76.50, ISBN: 978-1-3501-2573-5.

21 Roman Seas. A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies. By Justin Leidwanger. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xi + 323. B/w illustrations. Hardback £55, ISBN: 978-9-19-008365-6.

22 Leidwanger draws heavily on archaeological ‘network analysis’ here (98–109), particularly the pioneering work of Carl Knappett and others: see T. Brughmans, ‘Connecting the Dots: Towards Archaeological Network Analysis’, OJA 29.3 (2010): 277–303; C. Knappett, An Archaeology of Interaction. Network Perspectives on Material Culture and Society (Oxford, 2011); C. Knappett (ed.), Network Analysis in Archaeology. New Approaches to Regional Interaction (Oxford, 2016); T. Brughmans, A. Collar, and F. Coward (eds.), The Connected Past. Challenges to Network Studies in Archaeology and History (Oxford, 2016); J. Leidwanger and C. Knappett (eds.), Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Cambridge, 2018).

23 A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases. By John H. Oakley. Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 2020. Pp. xxi + 248. B/w illustrations, 33 colour plates. Hardback £99.50, ISBN: 978-0-299-32720-0.

24 Oakley, J., Picturing Death in Classical Athens. The Evidence of the White Lekythoi (Cambridge, 2004)Google Scholar.

25 Living on the Edge of Empire. The Objects and People of Hadrian's Wall. By Rob Collins, with Barbara Birley, Alexandra Croom, Jane Laskey, Frances McIntosh, Tim Padley, Andrew Parkin, and Elsa Price. Barnsley, Pen & Sword Archaeology, 2020. Pp. 168. Colour illustrations. Hardback £25, ISBN: 978-1-78346-327-5.