I want to say outright that this is a book worth reading in its entirety, despite its discouraging size, and not just by prehistorians. On my second run, as I write this text, I keep thinking of a potential alternative map, like the one in Cortázar's Hopscotch, which would accentuate its many virtues. One could read it from cover to cover, as I did the first time, but one could also use Insoll's remarkable work in the Introduction to follow recurrent issues and joining threads. The chapters themselves are organized geographically, grouped by continents; references are placed at the end of each chapter, and most authors include a short section with suggestions for further reading. Although not stated in the Introduction, but rather in Insoll's chapter on West Africa (Ch. 8), figurines in the Handbook are considered prehistoric, as long as ‘there are no indigenous texts that record their uses and the meanings ascribed them in the past’ (p. 151).

Right from the start, Insoll acknowledges that the Handbook is not exhaustive, with certain areas missing. Whatever the cause of that—he refers to a lack of available authors to write the relevant chapters (p. 3)—it certainly relates to the history of the discipline, which has resulted in the formation of distinct fields of study, even in relatively small areas, such as, for example, ‘Cycladic’ (Ch. 28) and ‘Minoan and Mycenaean’ (Ch. 29) figurines, among others. A glance at the number of pages devoted to each continent would suffice to show the privileged position of certain areas, but this is not a criticism against the Handbook, rather a realization of the way things have moved in our discipline, something acknowledged and highlighted by Insoll as well (p. 12). Indeed, the Handbook has magnificently articulated the state of the art of prehistoric figurine research, but it also ventures, explicitly and implicitly, into what possibilities are opened up for future work. It is this aspect with which the remainder of this review is concerned.

The implementation of new analytical protocols is of course a key component of future avenues and the work at Çatalhöyük continues to be exemplary on that count, as on many others (Ch. 2, with references). Other chapters (especially Chs 12 and 14) build on analytical procedures that are relatively new in figurine research, but I want to focus more on the questions asked, rather than the methods employed, although the two are inextricably related.

Certain questions and matters of concern seem to relate to regional traditions. Thus, the employment of figurines in initiation rituals is particularly sought out in Africa (Chs 5, 6, 7, and 8). Shamanism is a practice invoked especially in the Americas (Chs 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, and 19), although it is referred to elsewhere. Concern with monumentalism and its relation to figurines is particularly evident in Mesoamerica (Chs 12, 13, 14, and 16), although again present in other chapters as well. A distinctive relationship to ethnography is also evident in certain areas. Studies of figurines in Africa and North America rely much more on recent evidence; in some cases they even seek continuity as an explanatory device (p. 373).

Nearly all the chapters attempt to go beyond a mere description of the artefacts at hand and provide some sort of interpretation, although one has to admit that even ‘mere description’ is interpretive as well. Some follow Meskell (Ch. 2) in considering figurines as process, whether they use that term or not. That is, they consider figurines to be engaged in a never-ending palimpsest of meaning production and affective action. I found most refreshing the chapters that focus on how figurines affected people (Ch. 4, by Stevenson); or on the consequences they had on people, even after the specific events in which they were used (Ch. 10, by Antczak and Antczak); or on their prescriptive role that oriented action (Ch. 18, by Lau); or especially on the way they restricted ‘the range of citational options’ (Ch. 7, by Schoeman). Still, some chapters tend to focus on ‘the final interpretation’ (p. 41), that is, they continue to ask what figurines were for. This is a legitimate question, but there is a danger lurking here. Although not the same as looking for a single interpretation, it is still a question that targets the intentions of the makers, one that presupposes that these intentions should be evident in the final object, save for our lack of detailed information (p. 122). Thus, figurines are still considered manifestations of world-views, ideas, and ideologies (Chs 5, by Haaland & Haaland, and 13, by Blomster), or bodies on which ideologies are inscribed (Ch. 35, by Vella Gregory), even if they were meant to be ambiguous (Ch. 24, by Kuijt). Figurines may have agency (I shall refrain from discussing here the problems with the idea that someone or something possesses agency), but, according to this view, this agency is just the reflection of their makers’ intentions. I would argue instead that figurines intervened in people's lives in ways that went beyond their makers’ intentions and expectations; indeed, that they helped shape intentions and expectations for everybody involved (Nanoglou, Reference Nanoglou, Harrell and Driessen2015).

All this happened largely in specific places on specific occasions (but of course even beyond these, Ch. 10, by Antczak & Antczak) and thus contextual analysis is paramount. All chapters insist on that, and indeed it is here I should stress that the Handbook succeeds in grounding figurine research, which probably will and should be the spearhead of future work. Most chapters focus not on generic symbolic systems, but on practices employed in historically specific conditions. Even in the cases where ideologies and world-views are invoked, the discussion highlights specific instantiations and negotiations, rather than looking for mental templates. The interplay among settlements, cemeteries, and ritual/sacred spaces is explored repeatedly, even if, at times, the triad seems predetermined. I was particularly interested in the several cases where figurines seem to have been used in groups rather than individually (e.g. Chs 4, 11, 13). Apart from having something to say concerning the way these figurines were meaningful and effective, it is important to consider the implications such practices have for the very constitution of the objects at hand (see further below). But one should be careful with context. A narrow definition of context, one that identifies it with the area where an object was deposited along with its associated features and other objects, and one that accordingly leaves objects hanging out of context (p. 41, see also p. 110, where it is suggested that rock art cannot be directly associated with a context), can only attenuate the possibilities we have to understand life in the past and the present. The way forward is to question all kinds of contexts, starting from the one related to deposition, but turning also to other contexts, not least those in which we practice archaeology and we study these figurines (which includes contexts that affect our understanding in negative terms, such as the practice of illicit excavation and trade of antiquities, Chs 8, 28). Knox (Ch. 33), for instance, rightly insists on the role the discourse on Aphrodite has had in shaping our understanding of Cypriote figurines, and we are reminded of Marija Gimbutas and her grand narrative throughout the handbook. Just as in the case of a ‘final interpretation’, the position that there is an outside of context suggests that there is some sort of core attribute that lies beyond our own engagement with these objects, objectively distanced, yet permanently coveted.

Engaging with figurines entailed handling things with a material presence, a point that several chapters accentuate, most notably Meskell (Ch. 2) and Bailey (Ch. 36). Size and material are a concern throughout the book and inform the interpretations advanced. The grounding I referred to above is evident here as well, for the discussion is always about tangible representations, which have volume, weight, and even particular wear, rather than some transcendental image. The range of materials used is fascinating (Insoll on p. 7 assembles an impressive list) and makes one wonder what we are missing in areas with less than optimal preservation. Paradoxically, I am most captivated by the ceramic figurines of the Upper Palaeolithic from Central Europe (Ch. 30, by Farbstein), but also by several cases in which figurines were enhanced by way of adding perishable material (Chs 2, 8, 9, 15, and 18). The latter highlight, among other things, the problem of completeness. This is a problem most markedly discussed within the context of fragmentation (Chapman, Reference Chapman2000; see Chs 8, 20, 31, 34, 36, and 38), but there is more to it, not least because in several cases, where figurines were used in sets, they might not have been meaningful and effective individually. Should we accordingly count these individual objects as fragmentary (Nanoglou, Reference Nanoglou, Harrell and Driessen2015)? The obverse of this issue—when and if an object is ever finished, or whether the very process of making a figurine is perhaps of greater importance—is also addressed in some chapters (see mostly Chs 2, 14, and 30). All in all, the book makes a significant effort to incorporate figurines back into the world of situated action, rather than keep them on the outside as some sort of mirror of what was taking place in the communities that used them, and indeed this effort paves the way for some truly integrated work in the future. With that in mind, let me make one last comment.

As one might have expected, gender is a subject visited in all chapters. Most of them rightfully acknowledge the problems in recognizing gender and advocate a move beyond a simple male/female binary. It is clear from the various cases that the characterization ‘female/male’ should not count as an explanation in itself—that is, as if it does not matter how these figurines were used, what they were doing, but only whether they depicted women or men. Accepting that would only perpetuate the idea that there was a ‘primary’ role among the people in the past, that of reproduction, and accordingly people using these objects were all about their basic biological survival. The book offers many opportunities to see that this is not the case. Having said that, I am still perplexed with the invocation of the pubic triangle, voluminous buttocks, and hips, even the protruding belly, as female traits (e.g. pp. 425, 584, 604, 645), without any concomitant analysis of such traits, so that their association with women, even more their articulation within a discourse of gender, is established. The work of Meskell and her associates at Çatalhöyük (Ch. 2) is clearly an indication that there might be different avenues to explore (see also Ch. 12 by Pool). It is of prime importance for figurine research to turn to the investigation of what kinds of categories were acknowledged and sanctioned, rather than to identify traits of presumably cross-cultural and trans-historical character.

To conclude, overall, I found that the chapters beyond my immediate expertise were the most appealing to me and this, on second thought, may prove to be the greatest value of this handbook; that is, a starting point for cross-fertilization, a source for new ideas that would provoke us all to go beyond the norm of our own regional traditions and to think outside the box, but never outside a context. So, I would highly recommend this book to graduates and postgraduates, to specialists and non-specialists, all those who can afford it―because it is expensive―but equally to the authors themselves, if they haven't devoured it by now. Let me finish: despite the diversity of materials used, it so happens that the book is mostly about clay figurines; notwithstanding this, it will certainly become a milestone of figurine research and a firm stepping stone for work to come.