Julia Steding's book investigates the large corpus of Palmyrene loculus reliefs to understand the interplay between customers, carvers, materials and society in shaping these funerary portraits, adding to current scholarship on ancient sculpture by focusing specifically on limestone. S.'s analysis starts by considering the placement of loculus reliefs within Palmyrene graves, which is often poorly documented. By assessing 240 reliefs in relation to the number of people they depict (11−35), she concludes that carvers had to be aware of the physical space they were used in, for their size was not strictly standardised. The analysis suggests that carvers acted with a certain degree of freedom, even adjusting the final product on site if needed. Larger reliefs and those with peculiar shapes, however, were custom made to fit specific spaces. This chapter shows how, far from the standardisation these idealised portraits might suggest, their creation involved considerable flexibility, adaptation and individuality, a topic further explored throughout the book.

The following chapters turn to the tools and carving techniques employed by Palmyrene carvers. S.'s investigation is applied on the micro and macro scale, showing how the identification of tool traces can provide useful insights into the mental processes and technical choices of ancient makers. The detailed surface analysis carried out on selected case studies in ch. 3 reveals how the common sequence of carving operations could be adjusted to allow for the individual traits of the stone and commission. Ch. 4 turns to a larger dataset to explore chronological changes in tool use. While discussing the interplay of stylistic and technical choices and how Palmyrene carvers appear to gain a better understanding of the materials they were using through time, S. makes an important point when stressing that the softness of limestone made it possible to skip some of the intermediate steps necessary when carving harder stones, allowing for a more economical approach. While assessing the drill, however, S. argues that its increasing use from c. a.d. 150 cannot be explained simply in stylistic terms but could instead relate to technical innovation and skill transfer. This conclusion is not entirely convincing, since drilling was already used—if more sparsely—in the previous century, as recognised by S. (81–2). Still, these chapters offer interesting conclusions regarding the interconnection between stylistic choices, economic factors and carving techniques.

Ch. 5 considers whether loculus reliefs were made to stock or produced on demand. By assessing the number and type of additional elements depicted in 769 funerary portraits, S. demonstrates the endless variation in their combination. This, together with her observations in previous chapters, leads S. to argue for a customised production. The persuasive case could have been made even stronger by estimating the labour needed to procure the raw materials and carve these reliefs, for even a ball-park figure could have helped in gauging if it made sense for Palmyrene carvers to rough out the stone before an order was placed (a point raised by S. at 109) or if one could be made from scratch in the time needed to prepare the body for the burial. These figures would also have helped in estimating the monetary value of loculus reliefs and the number of workshops producing them. In ch. 7, S. moves from the assumption that the currently known reliefs make up only 10 per cent of the total, calculating that carvers produced an average of fewer than 60 reliefs per year and concluding that no more than one or two small workshops would have been active at Palmyra. Whether these carving workshops specialised in funerary reliefs and sarcophagi or also produced architectural elements is difficult to establish, but S.'s work offers a good starting-point for future analyses. Lack of evidence makes it difficult to reconstruct the organisation of Palmyrene workshops, but the size of the reliefs and her previous conclusions lead S. to argue against a strict division of labour. However, she recognises the need to account for apprentices learning their trade, as well as different specialists—especially painters—either hired when needed or permanently employed.

Ch. 8 situates Palmyra within the wider context of ancient portraiture and carving traditions, focusing on similarities and differences in the use of carving tools, highlighting local differences—mainly connected with the choice of material—as well as general trends.

The strength of this book lies in its detailed analysis of the large corpus of Palmyrene loculus reliefs, allowing the author to assess the material on a micro and macro scale. This combined approach deepens our understanding of local production at Palmyra, as becomes particularly clear when reading S.'s conclusions regarding tool use and the highly individualised combinations of attributes and gestures characterising the depiction of the deceased. She raises an important point about the appearance of Palmyrene portraits, stressing that they were influenced by the properties of limestone rather than a lack of skills or interest on the artisans’ part. Her analysis clearly shows that customers could strongly influence the final appearance of loculus reliefs, creating customised portraits within the prevailing stylistic framework developed from societal ideals. This book adds to the growing literature exploring the interplay between customers and artisans in ancient craft production and hopefully it will stimulate further research on the economics of loculus relief carving at Palmyra.