The discussion of Seals, Craft and Community in Bronze Age Crete could easily take thousands of pages: fortunately, this book has a much more limited remit. The book's main interest resides in the investigation of new patterns of interaction that appear on Crete during the Early Bronze III–Middle Bronze Age IA period (a.k.a. Early Minoan III–Middle Minoan IA; 2300–1900 bc). The author approaches this investigation through a fresh discussion of the role of new types of seals, glyptic iconography and an emerging shared community of craftspeople in the creation of new types of connectivity on Crete. The study of the 49 sealstones and eight sealings of the so-called Parading-lions style forms the analytical core of the main text of the book that is complemented by a lengthy appendix where each seal and sealing is catalogued and described at length. It would have been helpful for the potential reader if the title (or an added subtitle) described more concisely the contents of the book.

The volume begins with an introduction that establishes the main ideas of the book as well as guiding the reader through the organization of the chapters. Chapter 1 presents an overview of Late Prepalatial–Early Palatial Crete, with particular interest in the developing of interconnectivity in this period. The chapter includes substantial discussions about the significance of the new palace buildings and peak sanctuaries (cult places in top of certain summits) in fostering mobility and interconnectivity and how the analysis of the Parading-lions seals can shed further light on the period. Chapter 2 starts with a theoretical discussion about the meanings of the use of seals and sealings in relation with the people that created, used and consumed them. The discussion takes an experiential point of view, reflecting on how seals were socialized through practice, embodiment and their perception by diverse audiences. The author is also keen to recognize seals as actors in their own right, introducing entanglement and thing theory to the study of Cretan glyptics. The chapter ends with a review of the development of seals on Crete during the EM IIB and EM III periods, setting the background for the study of the Parading-lions seals. Chapter 3 starts with a review of the possible off-island origin of the Parading-lions iconography and how this interacts with the exotic ivory in which those seals were carved. The chapter ends with a lengthy discussion about how the new figurative iconography of the Parading-lions seals facilitated new types of connectivity in the island. Chapter 4 presents the analysis of Parading-lions seals, a work that relies mainly on an art-historical methodology with microscopical review of the casts of the seals, as well as macroscopical study of the actual objects. The author then divides the corpus into several sub-groups following iconographic and technical traits and proceeds to identify geographical patterns in the distribution of some of these sub-groups. Chapter 5 provides the final discussion and conclusions, tying together the theory and material presented in earlier chapters. The catalogue in the Appendix begins with a substantial discussion about the concept of style and an explanation of several of the terms used to describe the seals that expands and clarifies the discussion in chapter 4.

There are very good things in the book. The abstract mentions the idea of itinerant craftspeople, but the discussion in the main text offers a much more fluid and dynamic picture of people, objects and ideas moving in different manners and by different mechanisms. I personally struggle to see the carvers of the seals as specialized craftspeople, given that ivory is a material easy to work following techniques familiar to anybody with a bit of experience in woodcarving. Also, the author suggests that ivory was only available in certain central trade hubs, but as far as we know from the record it is entirely possible that ivory reached most communities as a raw material. These are the kind of questions that the book prompts the reader to consider, making clear the relevance of such considerations, and stimulates new ways to think about the corpus of material. The emphasis in practice, agency and the actual use of sealstones also presents a fresh approach to basic questions about their display and use, and the repercussions the innovations in iconography may have had for interaction across the island. This broader theoretical contextualization helps to bring down barriers that sometimes isolate sphragistic analyses, enabling connections between seals and recent studies of other types of materials. While new theoretical approaches normally bring a very divisive response by scholars, the book's approach should inspire most readers to think differently about seals and understand better their possible roles in Cretan society. It also breathes new life into the study of the Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Siegel catalogue (a database that aims to include all known seals and sealings from the Bronze Age Aegean), showcasing possible new types of analyses.

Given the potential of the book to open new debates, its impact could have been greatly strengthened with a few improvements. First, the book could have been made much more approachable and welcoming to a wider range of readers with a few additions such as the introduction of a map of mentioned sites, or a chronological table in the introduction. The material could have been introduced a bit more clearly, as the 10 sub-groups into which the seals are divided are never presented in the main text. A simple list or table that also quantifies the number of items in each sub-group and a short discussion of the reasons behind the definition of each sub-group would have allowed the reader to gain a better understanding of the data analysed. This is not just a matter of editing and it has deeper repercussions. One of the things that strikes the reader is that seals considered in the Parading-lions group have very different motifs (e.g. linear zoned group). As the author puts much emphasis on the relationship between seal, iconography, wearer, user and audience, it is crucial to understand to what extent the Parading-lions group is defined by the analysis of patterns in the data that talk about the way seals were conceptualized in the past, or by modern exercises in typologization. Finally, for a study that relies so heavily on the description of the iconography, I would have hoped for larger and clearer illustrations that better depict the details that the author mentions in the text.

The book's extensive discussion about connectivity in late Prepalatial Crete could have been strengthened with a more meaningful discussion of the rich literature about the period. The author relies heavily on a small number of works, particularly those by Relaki and an unpublished article by Haggis (a draft is available online). Ideas by authors such as Schoep, Papadatos or Whitelaw are barely explored, leading to a lack of critical review of current debates about the Late Prepalatial period that would have made chapters 1, 2 and 5 much more substantial and attractive to specialist researchers and students. The discussion of the exotic nature of the lions, a key point in the author's discussion of the possible exotic values of the Parading-lions seals, illustrates the weaknesses well. The author suggests that Cretan carvers probably had only a second- or third-hand knowledge of lions, but it misses a corpus of evidence, such as an animal bone from Middle Bronze Age Kolonna that suggests that lions were well known in the Aegean.

A last omission in the book is a meaningful discussion of the fact that the seals were mainly found in tombs. Cretan funerary data carry significant archaeological and taphonomic problems for their interpretation. The final chapter of the book builds a picture of the period in which sites with significant numbers of sealstones, such as Archanes and Platanos, are interpreted as key hubs to which craftsmen would have come to acquire ivory and where ideas and techniques would have been exchanged; but cannot this concentration of seals in Platanos and Archanes be better explained because they are the two best preserved cemeteries in central Crete? A closer examination of the archaeological data would have helped the author to construct a stronger case for the spatial patterns she recognizes in the use of Parading-lions seals. Moreover, cemeteries are ideologically charged social arenas that can tell much about cultural values, meanings and uses of the material deposited in them. The presence of seals in tombs is a crucial fact that is never factored in the otherwise careful examination of the seals’ social role and use.

The book presents a novel approach that would attract people interested in glyptic studies, and those scholars specializing in the period may find inspirational the way the author approaches and debates connectivity, but, beyond that, the book has a limited audience. The gaps in the literature and blind spots in the contextualization of the data make it a difficult suggestion for students and scholars who are not very familiar with the period and cannot recognize some of the missing debates and information.