For Paul Nicholson, working at the industrial production site in Memphis must have been something like working on holy ground. That ground was prepared by no less a personage than the renowned Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie. This heritage is both an honour and a challenge: the latter particularly in connecting the results of the two excavations (Petrie's in 1908–1910; and N.'s in 2000–2005) and in reviewing the findings of N.'s distinguished predecessor.

N.'s book is divided into two sections. The first comprises eight chapters mostly written by N. himself with some contributed or co-authored by Marie-Dominique Nenna and Rowena Hart; and four appendices: the geophysical investigation of the site (Hart), a preliminary overview of the domestic pottery (Peter French), a basic archaeozoological report (S. Ikram, not credited on the title page) and the scientific analyses of selected faience objects from collections (Panagiota Manti). The second section comprises an extensive find catalogue dealing separately with figurines, faience objects, coins and seals/stoppers. A CD-ROM/DVD is part of the publication, offering a vast range of additional material.

In ch. 1, N. introduces the basic archaeology of Kom Helul and its surroundings (at the south of the Memphis site). He sympathetically reviews earlier work by Petrie and traces how faience finds from Kom Helul found their way into European collections. The value of Petrie's pioneering work was reduced by the fact that detailed recording of structures and finds was not yet standard archaeological practice. Thus it turned out to be difficult securely to relate the features revealed in the 2000–2005 campaigns with Petrie's earlier excavations.

Ch. 2 offers a valuable overview of pre-Roman faience production, discussing the difficulties arising from the terminology related to the various different materials generally called ‘faience’. The ‘non-clayey’ nature of the material and the different techniques of producing the colourful bluish or greenish glaze are illustrated. N. clearly describes the three main methods of glazing (efflorescence glazing, cementation glazing and application glazing) in a way accessible to a non-specialist.

In ch. 3, N. and Hart describe the excavation of six trenches. They explain why specific areas were selected (on the basis of the geophysical survey, trial borings and the hope of identifying some of Petrie's structures) or why some of them were abandoned after a brief test excavation. Two sites showed promising features with the potential for elucidating the industrial processes carried on at the site: trench HAD1 comprised a large fired mudbrick platform attributed by the authors to a structure Petrie called the ‘burnt house’; while HAC3 turned out to be a rather spectacular kiln structure that seemed to be identical with a kiln described by Petrie.

Chs 4 and 5 are the central chapters of the book. They concentrate on the kiln found at HAC3 and the finds related to this structure, and, in particular, the saggars (large ceramic containers designed for the protection of faience objects during their initial firing). For both — kiln and the two types of saggars — N. draws historical parallels with British saggar production in Stoke-on-Trent. With the help of photographs from 1964 and a film from 1981 (included on the CD-ROM/DVD), the reader is able to follow the different steps of saggar production and to grasp the differences and similarities between the modern and the Roman process.

In ch. 6, Marie-Dominique Nenna provides an overview of the major types of faience vessels and small objects encountered during the excavation. The recording of even very tiny fragments of faience results in an apparent discrepancy between different sites as the proportion of sherds large enough for secure typological attribution varied from one section to the other — with HAC3 yielding the most identifiable forms. Most importantly, Nenna offers an updated chronology of plain, undecorated glazed vessels. This faience ware had hitherto been much less well defined in terms of typology and chronology compared to decorated vessels and objects. A major result is that the range of forms encountered in or near the kiln at HAC3 indicates a specialization in workshops.

The treatment of faience technology in ch. 7 is obviously the result of long and fruitful discussion between Nenna and N. on how to interpret the Kom Helul finds (finished products, waste material and moulds). The lack of scientific investigation of technologically relevant finds and features in the Kom Helul material (unavoidably) leaves a major gap, but this, of course, is not the fault of the authors nor of the excavation — but a restriction of Egyptian policy on sampling and analysis. In a final chapter, N. summarizes the findings and discusses the possible relationship between pottery industries, stone-working, glass-making and the production of faience.

Overall, this volume makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of faience production in Roman Egypt. The improvement in our understanding of the typology and chronology of plain faience ware is particularly helpful. I particularly enjoyed N.'s comparisons of modern and Roman saggar production and the film produced in the factory at Stoke-on-Trent. And this study is all the more valuable since a considerable amount of the excavated material has now been lost. Indeed a sad footnote to a century of research at Kom Helul is the destruction of the workroom during the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 and looting of the storage magazine in 2014.