Domestic architecture in the Vesuvian cities illustrates vividly the omnipresence of water in ancient everyday life. Yet, understanding the rich and complex material evidence related to the distribution, use and exhibition of water in urban housing is a particularly challenging task. Hélène Dessales’ monograph is an important milestone towards this goal. Following a multidisciplinary approach, the author undertakes a thorough typological, functional and spatial analysis of domestic hydraulic infrastructure, seen through the prism of the tremendous progress made in the past decades in the field of the socio-cultural interpretation of the Roman domus.

The monograph is divided into three sections. In the first one, D. attempts a typology of domestic fountains and associated features. The second section is devoted to the archaeology of domestic water supply in Roman times, followed by a third section in which D. discusses the rôle of water as a structuring element of the architectural and socio-cultural geography of the domus. The author has collected a tremendous amount of data, meticulously compiled as a catalogue at the end of the monograph. 133 urban and suburban houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum equipped with basins and/or domestic fountains form the basis of the study. In the main text, D. also includes significant examples from Italy and the western provinces. The houses and their hydraulic apparatus — including associated statues and paintings — are documented down to their smallest technical details, allowing the reconstruction of micro-tracés of water through atria, peristyles/gardens, kitchens, baths and latrines. These elements are plotted on synthetic and very helpful scaled ground plans. As such, this comprehensive catalogue can be used as a general reference for water in the domestic contexts of the two towns.

In her detailed review of the typology of domestic fountains, D. avoids a traditional classification based on formal analogies, offering limited interpretative possibilities. Domestic basins and fountains are rather envisioned within their wider spatial context: how were they designed and how were they used as part of the wider architectural, functional and social-cultural environment of the house? Tracing the development of decorative basins in palatial contexts of Egypt and the Near East, D. draws their well-known subsequent diffusion towards the Hellenistic world and, ultimately, into Roman aristocratic circles. The typology proper then treats separately basins and fountains built in elevation, all variations of which are envisioned diachronically from the Republican period until the fourth century.

The second section examines the archaeology of water supply in the urban domus, through the traditional opposition between stored and running water. Wells and cisterns are discussed, followed by running-water supply systems. The structure of this otherwise very comprehensive section of the monograph is rather odd: supply systems are presented in reverse order, starting from the house and ending at the urban aqueducts. These data are then confronted with the normative framework regulating water supply from the Augustan period onward. D. shows that the granting of private connections to the urban supply network, depending on the social-political level of the owner, was in fact more flexible than suggested in written sources, with a clear margin for private initiative. She underlines the existence of a collective organization of water supply at the scale of city quarters and insulae, an aspect generally neglected between the two poles of water systems, the urban and the individual.

The third section brings together the evidence and explores the way domestic fountains and the presence of water at large shaped not only structurally but also socially the inner organization of the urban domus from the first century a.d. onward. For D., water, becoming a mere luxuria, not only enhances representative spaces, but also transforms progressively the spaces in which it increasingly penetrates, creating a thematic line from the street, through the atrium, the peristyle and the associated reception spaces. By reflecting on the spatial use of fountains, D. proposes a seductive alternative to the rigid and clear-cut categories structuring traditional typologies: more than the shape of a basin or a fountain façade, the utilitarian and/or representative value of water envisioned within domestic spaces explains much better the diffusion and adaptation of similar motifs and technical solutions, whereby both the social level of the owner and the geography of the house determined processes of diffusion, imitation and miniaturization, down to the use of dry mock-up fountains or water-related iconography in wall-paintings for those who could not afford more expensive solutions.

Despite the obvious qualities of this monograph, a few points of criticism can be made. First, the tension between utilitarian and representative uses of water does not seem fully resolved. D. clearly favours the hypothesis of water as a mere element of luxuria. Even if she sometimes hints that some fountains could be both enjoyable and utilitarian, the emphasis on the representative use of water seems at times one-sided. The decorative layout of domestic fountains is in my view not necessarily at odds with the fact that water could be tapped for other needs, as much as it was recycled to supply other structures. Second, the heavy reliance on typological classifications — even envisioned in spatial terms — still results in a very static view of water supply. The temporality inherent in every water supply system is, in my view, neglected. Which fountains or reservoirs could be switched off, which not? How periodic was the use of certain fountains, for instance during banquets or important events? What is the impact of this temporality on the absolute quantifications attempted by the author? Finally, it is regrettable that the author did not explore much of the German technical literature related to the topic and referred to on p. 2. Despite these minor criticisms, D.'s monograph, in my view, not only is a meticulous compendium of material evidence, it also demonstrates brilliantly the interest of a well-thought-out use of typology for wider social-cultural pursuits in water archaeology.