Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World by Katherine M.D. Dunbabin (review)

182 LETTERS IN CANADA 2000 Excavations began in 1977 and were substantially complete by 1986, although presentation of the results has taken an additional fourteen years. The material remains are described by specialists in a series of seven chapters on Architecture, Inscriptions, Sculpture, Iron Age Pottery, Miscellaneous Finds, Iron Age Fauna, and Charcoal and Seeds. There are appendices and sixty-three tables. Of special note is the detailed exposition of ceramics arranged in a series of deposits linked to the chronology of the shrine and the careful treatment of the figures and figurines that are closely related to cult ritual. In a final chapter Joseph Shaw draws together evidence presented in the previous discussions in order to give an overview of the ritual and the development of the sanctuary. Bibliography, concordance of excavation numbers and catalogue, and an index complete the volume of text. The second volume contains an immensely rich collection of drawings and photographs that illustrate every aspect of the excavation and interpretation of the sanctuary in its several phases. The volumes represent a fitting presentation of an unusually early sanctuary and one that contributes important evidence of religious practices during the first millennium BC. (ELIZABETH R. GEBHARD) Katherine M.D. Dunbabin. Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World Cambridge University Press. xxi, 358. US $135.00 This is the second general treatment of Greek and Roman mosaics to roll out within a few months. If Roger Ling=s Ancient Mosaics (1998) features economy, dependability, and ease of handling, Katherine M.D. Dunbabin=s book, at several times the price, is its fully loaded counterpart in the luxury category. Dunbabin outscales Ling in most respects, though not in the ratio of full-colour to black and white reproductions, nor in their visual quality. The appearance now of such works of encyclopedic synthesis, tailored to an educated but not necessarily specialist readership, is a function of the growth and maturation of mosaic studies over the past three or four decades. In that period, the study of mosaic has formed and occupied an ever-larger niche among the subdisciplines of classical archaeology and art history. Dunbabin herself is prominent among the scholars responsible for the burgeoning literature on individual mosaics and sites, on comparative artistic techniques, and on regional corpora of mosaics. The present impressive volume represents a skilful distillation of generations of work by dozens of specialists. The art of mosaic germinated in classical Greece, matured in the wide world of the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods, continued to thrive into late antiquity, and formed a major bequest to the medieval, Byzantine, and modern worlds. There can be few readers of this journal who do not, through studies, browsings, or travels, have at least some casual or residual HUMANITIES 183 knowledge of ancient mosaic. There is an even smaller number, though, who could not be informed, edified, or fascinated by the historical panorama presented by Dunbabin, or by the particularities of individual works, socio-cultural circumstances, technical evolution, artistic themes, or the details of recovery, preservation, and interpretation. The magnitudes of time and geography are daunting, as are the complexities of political, social, and artistic contexts. Even without entering fully into the medieval or Byzantine worlds, the work covers approximately a millennium that includes the early centuries of Christianity, while the subject matter is assembled from vast tracts of three continents; from Portugal to India on one axis and from Britain to Africa on the other. Dunbabin exercises admirable control over it all, communicating a sensitivity to the major currents of history while focusing when appropriate on the particulars of social, religious, or domestic practice or on the minutiae of tesserae and pebbles. She writes clearly, with a confidence that reflects a mastery of the subject. Where interpretive controversies exist among the experts, Dunbabin acknowledges them economically without entangling the reader in their intricacies unless one chooses to pursue them through the generous notes and bibliographical references. Material is efficiently deployed in two sections: >Historical and Regional Development= and >Technique and Production.= Chapters arranged on geographical and chronological criteria dominate the former, but there are also special treatments of wall and vault mosaics (different in technique, function and nomenclature...