This impressive volume, which originated in a Freie Universität Berlin dissertation of 2020, examines anatomical votives (internal and external human body parts) from sites in Latium which form part of the ‘Etrusco-Latial-Campanian’ group of mould-made terracottas, dedicated in Central Italy between the fourth and first centuries b.c. Although these votives have been the subject of increased scholarly attention for some forty years, partly on the back of the Corpus delle stipe votive in Italia volumes, Boecker observes that until now systematic analysis of votives from Latium has been limited. She provides an overview of prior scholarship, as well as a discussion of the chronology and diffusion of this votive tradition, which she sees as rooted in a koine of earlier dedicatory practices, not as a marker of the spread of Roman religious influence.
In ch. 7, B. has catalogued fifty-six main locales (altogether comprising 116 sites) where anatomical terracotta offerings (over 15,000 in total) have been recorded. As an indication of the diligence of her research efforts, she notes that this is double the number of sites documented in previous research. She focuses on twelve sites as case studies (ch. 3). It is not always entirely clear why some of these have been chosen, although she states that it is partly on the basis of the convenience of good existing publications that made it most practicable to (re-)contextualise the anatomical dedications (44). Hence Ponte di Nona, well published but otherwise insignificant, is included alongside urban centres such as Gabii, Minturnae and (inevitably) Fregellae, as well as places such as Norba where numbers of anatomicals are by contrast more limited. She excludes both Rome and (more surprisingly) Praeneste, despite their status as major political centres with multiple findspots of anatomicals. As well as analysing votive material from each site, B. discusses the historical, topographical and archaeological background, dating evidence, and so on. Among other points of interest, she observes the relative rarity of suburban (as opposed to urban or rural) findspots, and the greater prevalence of anatomical offerings in northern Latium (striking, given the exclusion of Rome and Praeneste).
From analysis of the catalogued material, B. detects two distinct types of cult site, distinguished by their location, votive assemblages and deities, and by the gender of worshippers (summarised in fig. 74). Firstly, she identifies cults in the rural sphere, often close to roads or transhumance routes, as having a masculine focus (she notes that 93 per cent of male genitalia votives come from such extra-urban sanctuaries). These she associates with mobility, trade and animal husbandry. Secondly, she perceives the existence of cults in an urban setting with a female focus and an emphasis on reproduction and life phases.
B. connects the use of anatomical terracottas with earlier votive types such as sheet-metal figures, but notes a shift in emphasis from the deity to the dedicant. The observation itself is not novel, but B. forcefully links this new ‘self-awareness’ to the female body in particular. She observes that where deities can be known or presumed, goddesses predominate (especially various incarnations of Juno), with associated votives typically though not exclusively relatable to women. (This does not mean that the dedicants themselves were necessarily women, as she rightly points out.) The apparent dominance of female deities and female-oriented cults in civic contexts which B. highlights certainly merits further exploration.
In spite of the near-total absence of any other evidence, the belief that anatomicals are indicators of healing shrines has persisted, even though it is clear from the finds that these ex votos could be offered to most gods in most sanctuaries. The overarching thrust of B.'s work is an attempt to challenge the assumption that anatomical offerings represent parts of body in need of (or in receipt of) divine healing. She somewhat overstates the originality of this endeavour and could have emphasised earlier studies which have questioned this blanket assumption, but this is perhaps understandable given that the work originated in a thesis.
B. only partially succeeds in divorcing anatomical votives from an association with healing, but is right to highlight herself the flexibility of meaning carried by these votives, and the importance of the circumstances in which they were dedicated by individuals. I appreciated her characterisation of the deities to whom anatomicals were offered as ‘helping deities’ (helfenden Gottheiten) rather than ‘healing deities’ (212, following F. T. van Straten).
While I do not always agree with B.'s conclusions (summarised in ch. 6, which also includes English and Italian summaries, by Giles Shepherd and Karl Gerhard Hempel respectively), there is no doubt that her work is extremely valuable, not least because of the excellent manner in which the material has been gathered together and structured. Coloured graphs and charts also make it easy to appreciate the data under investigation and compare site with site. There are colour photographs of temples and their surroundings (for example, fig. 36, an excellent photograph of Norba, dominating the Pontine plain), though surprisingly few photographs or drawings of votives themselves (only around half a dozen). At the end are four coloured relief maps of findspots of various categories of votives (e.g. eyes and masks). There is also a useful concordance table for the widely used works of Fenelli (1975), Comella (1981) and Bouma (1996). The production values are high — with 300 thick, glossy pages this is a physically as well as intellectually weighty volume.
