Bezeczky's edited volume, stemming from his international collaboration within an Austrian Science Fund project, tackles an important yet non-contextualised assemblage of amphorae from the so-called Castrum in Dobrika Bay on Veliki Brijun island (Brijuni archipelago, NE Adriatic, Croatia), as well as the site and the island as a whole, and to a lesser extent other classes of finds. The site was part of the Laecanii and later imperial fundus in southwestern Histria, comprising a main residential unit, the maritime villa in nearby Verige Bay, several rural productive sites, to which the early phases of the Castrum villa also belong, and a figlina on the mainland. The location of the Brijuni archipelago on the main Adriatic S–N sea route ensured communication and both export and import trade possibilities. A key feature in understanding the site and related interpretational problems lies in its excavations that were carried out over a time span of about 80 years without any regard to the stratigraphy and coherent assemblage recovery and then immediately followed by thorough conservation works. Architectural and stratigraphic analyses, in particular when aimed at a more detailed chronological reconstruction, have thus been rendered unproductive, doubtful or in some instances even impossible. Nevertheless, as the Brijuni Castrum is the only fully excavated Istrian rural site so far showing continuity from a first century bcvilla phase to well into the Middle Ages, thus presenting a vast array of layout and functional changes that might occur in more than a millennium of use, any new data stemming from it is relevant on both the regional and the wider Adriatic level.
Organised in four sections and thirteen chapters, along with a foreword (A. Pülz), in memoriam (F. Krinzinger), introduction and acknowledgement (Bezeczky), lists of figures, summaries, an appendix, indexes and references, the volume's main focus is on the amphorae finds from the Castrum excavations. Nevertheless, Bezeczky, M. La Torre and A. Schobert tackled the site and the Brijuni villae as a whole, in an attempt to formulate yet another interpretation of the archipelago's settlements in antiquity. Unfortunately, as no new data has been made available since the latest works on the Brijuni sites (V. Begović and I. Schrunk, The Brioni Islands [2007]; A. Vitasović, HistrArch 36 [2007]; R. Matijašić, Archaeol. Adriatica 2 [2008], all with earlier bibliography), such an endeavour, especially regarding the Castrum's chronological phasing, remains very difficult and its results speculative. In particular, issues concerning the later phases of the site, i.e. the ‘fortification phase’, and especially its function (civil vs military vs ecclesiastical) remain open, so much so that even the contributors to the volume could not agree on a univocal interpretation (see p. 27 n. 50). Along with the Castrum, the island's churches have also been explored (Chapter 3). The largest, originally early Christian Church of St Mary was re-analysed in most detail, again without any substantially new data being available; thus no definitive answers to its later developments are provided nor to the question of the existence of further Christian cult buildings within the settlement or in nearby Verige Bay villa. In particular, the discussion of the possibility of a bishopric seat and the Bishop's residence on the Brijuni remains highly speculative. This chapter, apart from suffering from these problems, is also highly confusing concerning the structures’ description (two sets of names are given for the churches’ annexes, especially in fig. 3.1 and in the subsequent text), while equating the maritime fortification system of Justinian times with the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, dating to a period three centuries earlier, is clearly a misinterpretation, unfortunately, reoccurring later in the volume (p. 61 n. 96). Bezeczky's contribution (Chapter 1) to the amphorae workshops in Istria, particularly the one located in nearby Fažana, offers an overview of the production of ceramics connected to the Brijuni fundus, which introduces the Dressel 6b type amphorae and their stamps.
The core of the volume, the chapters dedicated to amphorae, provides new data. Although much has been written over the years about the Castrum, ceramic finds, just as most find categories for that matter (excluding coins: A. Miškec, FMRHr 18 [2002]), have been mostly neglected, though the thorough examination of late Roman fine wares by P.M. Pröttel (Mediterrane Feinkeramik des 2.–7. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. [1996]) offered a glimpse into their rich variety, large quantity and vast interpretational potential, confirmed by the preliminary pottery analysis report by V. Vidrih Perko and M. Pavletić (RCRF Acta 36 [2000]). Bezeczky's volume, being the first comprehensive examination of a class of materials since, confirms this picture for amphorae as well. Divided by origin, i.e. Italic (Bezeczky), Hispanic (H. Gonzáles Cesteros and P. Berni Millet), eastern Mediterranean (Gonzáles Cesteros) and African (M. Bonifay and C. Capelli), the amphorae are further grouped either chronologically and/or by possible content. Further categories are presented only within the catalogue, probably because occurrences are too few for a detailed discussion. A somewhat inconsistent organisation of the various chapters does not hinder a cumulative view of the material, providing new sets of data for all the analysed amphorae. In fact, within most categories new occurrences for the area of the eastern Adriatic have been detected, enriching our understanding of commercial networks operating within it in the wide chronological period spanning from the first century bc to at least the seventh century ad. Nevertheless, as data about the quantities is missing for most categories, an exception being the African amphorae, it is hard to grasp the relevance of the various occurrences: i.e., are the finds described just a selection or are they representative of the whole assemblage? The section ends with an overview of amphorae stamps (other than the local Dr. 6b, which are dealt with separately in the appendix) and inscriptions (Bezeczky and Berni Millet) and the catalogue. Along with standard drawings, plates related to this section include photomicrographs of selected amphorae types.
Following this is a section dedicated to epigraphy, which first discusses the rare find of Dr. 20 amphorae with calendar graffiti and then deals with the tegulae and doliae epigraphy (both by Berni Millet). Providing ample analogies to the Brijuni example, these graffiti are analysed from several points of view: the individuals involved in the production, the figlinae organisation as well as general economic and historical implications on Baetican amphorae production, adding to the general debate provided by evidence from Monte Testaccio and their production area. Tegulae and doliae stamps offer, as in the case of amphorae, new insights into the Castrum material, although finds from other sites, kept at the Brijuni museum, are present as well, enriching the occurrences of certain stamps within the Istrian peninsula.
A section dedicated to micropetrography, by G. Szakmány and S. Józsa, closes the volume. Analyses conducted mainly on thin sections of Fažana amphorae and raw material samples by polarising microscopy are interpreted with regard to their non-plastic components, in order to gain knowledge about raw materials and production technology. This chapter is a more detailed account of results already published elsewhere (but not cited, see Szakmány et al., Roman Pottery and Glass Manufactures III [2017]), and just a segment of the archaeometrical analysis applied to the Laecanii production. In any case, the results, discussed here in detail from a geological and petrographic standpoint, seem to indicate raw materials sourced from an area 60–70 km distant from the kiln works at Fažana, which is striking as recent studies have usually assumed much smaller distances. Such results have a far-reaching resonance with the figlinae organisation and their internal economics, in particular with the agenda of the cost-benefit of sourcing raw materials and ultimately with the wider topic of Roman rural property organisation. The questions arise, among others, of why Histria shows such a peculiarity in amphorae production organisation and whether the gain provided by the widespread distribution of its olive oil could justify such investments in the acquisition of raw materials. A confirmation of this practice of sourcing raw materials, provided through further analytical methods, will certainly corroborate the results obtained by petrography. Consequently, plenty of material for further discussion is provided by this very informative, albeit technical, contribution. The appendix, 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, offering 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 interpretational 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.
