Starting with Ward-Perkins' pioneering article (‘Tripolitania and the marble trade’, JRS 41 (1951), 89–104), the Roman stone trade has become a stimulating, interdisciplinary topic. Such academic interest is confirmed by the popularity of the ASMOSIA conferences and by the numerous publications dealing with marble studies (for example, M. L. Fischer, Marble Studies: Roman Palestine and the Marble Trade (1998); D. Attanasio, Ancient White Marbles: Analysis and Identification by Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (2003); and, more recently, P. Pensabene, I marmi nella Roma antica (2013)). With this new volume — in the series Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy — Ben Russell offers a fresh insight into the discipline by looking at the economic, historical and social features of the stone market in antiquity.

The principal aim of the book is to offer a critical reassessment of Ward-Perkins' model, based on the analysis of new data and published material. The picture outlined by R. points towards a more elaborated system of production and distribution across the Empire. According to this view, quarrying and trade were certainly subject to imperial regulation, but different regional patterns were also common. The study collects evidence from various territories of the Roman world, in particular the Mediterranean basin. The timescale is understandably limited to the first three centuries a.d., although earlier and later periods are occasionally taken into account.

The book opens with a status quaestionis of stone studies and with an outline of the goals of the research (ch. 1). The discussion can then be divided into two almost equal parts (8–200, and 201–351). The first part (chs 2–5) follows closely the steps in the stone market: demand, production, transport and distribution. After that, chs 6–8 are dedicated to the production of three specific types of object: architectural elements, sarcophagi and statues. In conclusion, ch. 9 provides final remarks on the evidence discussed throughout the book. The structure is straightforward and well-organized, so that the reader can follow R.'s arguments with ease.

When investigating the demand for stone (ch. 2), it is acknowledged that imperial building projects played an important rôle. However, private investments were also significant and must be taken into consideration in any quantitative analyses of stone use and its costs. Similar observations apply to the management of quarries and their ownership (ch. 3). In previous studies, those owned by the emperors have often overshadowed the existence of smaller, private and municipal quarries. In contrast, R. argues that the latter did not die out suddenly in the imperial era. The organization of imperial, private and mixed systems is accurately described (38–61), together with an overview of the distribution of quarries in the western and eastern Mediterranean (61–77) aided by useful maps (figs 3.9–3.14, 3.17).

As regards the transport of stone from quarry to destination, R. compares (in ch. 4) movement overland, by river and overseas. A large part of the discussion is based on the evidence available from shipwrecks (110–31), which complements the remarks presented in two articles by R. in A. Gutiérrez, P. Lapuente and I. Roda (eds), Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone (2012), 533–9 and JRA 26 (2013), 169–99. What emerges is the existence of a great number of cargoes headed towards Rome, thus confirming the importance of the capital as the main redistribution centre. In addition, the remarkable quantity of smaller ships attests to the vitality of short-distance networks, and to the demand for stone for non-imperial projects. Finally, ch. 5 focuses on stone distribution patterns. The first part is dedicated to the analysis of five case studies (146–64), covering different regions of the Roman world: Asia Minor, the Levant, Spain, Gaul, the Rhineland and Britain. The second part is centred on the distribution of sarcophagi and statues (169–84), and on the features of imperially-regulated redistribution (184–98). R. concludes that stone movements for imperial and non-imperial projects were interconnected, although the various types of products — building stones, sarcophagi and statues — followed different market patterns.

As to architectural elements (bases, capitals and monolithic column shafts), R. examines the production process in ch. 6, by looking mainly at the quarry evidence. The analysis focuses on building projects and orders from the quarries, on intentional and unintentional stocks of materials, and on production methods. The heterogeneity of finished and roughed-out objects found at the quarries, as well as their different sizes, would suggest that the idea originally proposed by Ward-Perkins of production-to-stock widespread across the Roman world should now be played down, if not discarded (254–5). A similar scenario is reconstructed for sarcophagi in ch. 7. The renowned and widely diffused products of Attic, Asiatic and metropolitan carvers do not prove the existence of monopolizing enterprises, but rather attest to a varied market which included more localized, regional producers (307–8). Finally, production of statues is examined in ch. 8, although the evidence is not as substantial as for the two previous products. Shipping roughed-out statues from the quarries (317–29) was one option, but it was not routine; rather, carvers belonging to different schools migrated to meet demand for their products (351).

To sum up, R.'s book represents an innovative and fundamental contribution to the study of stone in the ancient world. The approach adopted makes the reading suitable both for specialists and for a wider audience of archaeologists and ancient historians. There is no doubt that stimuli for further research and new in-depth analysis can be drawn from every chapter of this book.