The volume is a collection of papers stemming from a symposium held at the Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, Turkey, in 2018. Publication was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and earthquakes in the country; getting the volume out by 2024, given those constraints, is admirable. The volume comprises 18 chapters, including the introduction, 11 of which were delivered at the original event, ‘Unguentarium. A terracotta vessel form and other related vessels in the Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine Mediterranean’. However, the title of this volume omits that the focus of this volume is ceramic unguentaria (and related forms), and glass (as the main other medium for unguentaria production) only features as an afterthought in most papers. The cover image (a terracotta unguentarium) may hint at its focus, and while this is a minor criticism, it could mislead.
It is regrettable that the intersection and interaction between glassworkers and potters making similar vessels is not considered more in this volume, as I think much more could be done to tie in the fact that glass vessels were being produced alongside all the terracotta unguentaria described. This is likely due to the nature of archaeological specialisms, which frequently work in isolated, material-based silos. That said, the symposium organisers and editors have deliberately chosen to focus on an under-published and typically neglected area of study — ceramic unguentaria.
Ceramic unguentaria from all over the Mediterranean feature, from Italy and its surrounding islands, from the Iberian peninsula and from Asia Minor (which unsurprisingly features heavily given the symposium’s origins) and Greece. With any symposium, there will be geographical gaps, given the organisers’ network, the ability of scholars to work on this material (or even its existence) in that region, and other factors; this volume is no exception. There is a notable underrepresentation of material from North Africa, south-east Europe (though one paper focuses on Dacia), the Levant and southern France. However, this may point to the state of the discipline (which has been advanced through this volume), rather than any deliberate omission. The editors themselves state that the Eastern Mediterranean is understudied compared to the West (2), which is a fair assessment, and this volume addresses that imbalance.
The first chapter by the editors introduces the volume, which includes a digression on Late Antique unguentaria (which drastically change in form and, perhaps, function). The statement that the term unguentarium is a modern invention (1) is often repeated, and while I would agree that it is not a cohesive and coherent group like, for example, amphora or aryballos, this is not entirely true. There are at least three mentions of the term by ancient authors in Latin: Pliny the Elder (HN 36.12.60), Ulpian (Dig. 34.2.25.10), and in a letter of St Augustine (Fontaine et al. Signa 1 (2012)). In glass circles, Whitehouse influentially claimed that the term was a nineteenth-century neologism (D. Whitehouse. Glass: A Pocket Dictionary of Terms Commonly Used to Describe Glass and Glassmaking (1993)). While only three authors from the first to the fifth centuries c.e. constitute a small corpus, this is an important point to acknowledge. I would concur with the editors that the considered use of the term unguentaria is a helpful heuristic, especially in time periods and contexts where Ancient Greek predominated, but this Latin usage is not without ancient precedent.
The chapters vary in length, from as little as two pages of text (ch. 7 — albeit with some useful colour photos of core-formed glass vessels) to ch. 3, which takes up over 70 pages combined. While rigorous and well-evidenced (stemming from the author Giovanna Camponetti’s doctoral thesis), ch. 3 stands out as something that may well have been better published as a stand-alone article, both for discoverability and for the somewhat tenuous link it presents between pelike and unguentaria.
Four of the articles (outside the introduction, chs 6, 15, 16 and 18) feature either one of the volume editors, sometimes in collaboration with Maurizio Buora. While this is more than you might see in many typical edited volumes, these papers certainly strengthen the volume’s claim to be a key reference work and beacon to future scholars of unguentaria across several time periods. In this instructive vein, ch. 4 by Angeliki Liveri offers a clear overview of Attic terracotta alabastra. Ch. 5 by Eleni Trakosopoulou-Salakidou and Anna Panti describes and richly illustrates the terracotta (and some glass) unguentaria from the Eastern Cemetery of Thessaloniki, dating to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Ch. 6, by the editors and Buora, is a catalogue of terracotta unguentaria and amphora stoppers in the British Museum, which is a key reference collection for the form. Ch. 7, fortunately, despite the volume’s aims, gives us a much-needed archaeological reference collection of core-formed glass unguentaria — or at least photos of the rich assemblages from Granada. Ch. 8, by Francisco B. Gomes, provides a preliminary scoping overview of unguentaria from the Hellenistic period in Iberia, highlighting and promoting future study of these vessels in the region.
Chs 9–12 focus on unguentaria from the regions in which the contributors work: Spain, southern Italy, pre-Roman Dacia and Portugal, respectively. These present useful contexts, although it would have been helpful to have more detail about the chemical analyses of the vessels in ch. 10 by Marcella Leone, which are slightly glossed over. Chs 13–17 are focused on Late Roman unguentaria (which were most likely manufactured in Asia Minor). Ch. 14 presents valuable work on the residues inside these vessels, although the ineffable nature of the balms, due to an inability to identify anything beyond the most stable compounds of ancient unguenta and medicamenta, is sadly mirrored elsewhere in the study of unguentaria contents in other materials, such as stone and glass. The volume is capped by ch. 18 by Gülseren Kan Şahin, which provides a useful bibliographic resource for the study of unguentaria from Turkey.
The volume is well illustrated throughout, including in colour, making it an excellent (but not comprehensive) resource. Mistakes and typographical errors are few and far between.
