Alexandria's Hinterland: Archaeology of the Western Nile Delta Egypt. By Mohamed Kenawi. Archaeopress, Oxford, 2014. ISBN 978-1-788491-014-3, pp. xii + 241, 333 figures, 36 plates, 10 maps and 5 tables. Price: £48 (paperback).

bles are again attested. In his discussion chapter (8), Mugnai charactertises architectural ornament in Mauretania Tingitana as falling into three categories: influenced by pre-Roman traditions; Roman ‘official-style’ art (a slightly awkward term that could have been examined more); and local-style decoration. Overlap between these categories is clearly stressed, however. Very little survives of pre-Roman architecture, in practice. There is a sense here of ‘eclecticism’, a term Mugnai is prepared to use both for the architecture and society of the region. Some useful broader points come out of Mugnai’s discussion. On the marble trade, the evidence from the province shows that certain coastal centres, notably Sala, were able to engage in the wider Mediterranean decorative stone trade; but little or none of this material entered the interior, a pattern attested, though rarely so starkly, elsewhere. Instead of importing architectural forms, Volubilis developed its own, large-scale and vibrant carving scene. These carvers, and their colleagues in other centres, modified and in some case schematised the more widespread Romano-Carthaginian style but they also developed wholly innovative designs, many based on what Mugnai calls reworked Hellensitic models. Some of the most widely accepted design principles, for theCorinthian order,were simply not applied in these designs. Volubilis was a hub of this activity, especially from the second century AD, but carvers in the other cities of the region would seem to have been singing from the same hymn sheet. A final important point made by Mugnai concerns patronage: the commissioners who paid for the buildings he examines were evidently happy with the eclectic result of their efforts; groups of carvers had a remarkable degree of freedom and homogeneity was rarely achieved or apparently desired within a single building. Mugnai’s study, therefore, sheds crucial new light not just on the architecture of this neglected province but also provides vital datasets for discussions of local and regional identity, provincial engagement with metropolitan models, architectural patronage, stone-carving and building site practices, and the development of regional architectural and economic connections. The volume itself, the first in this new series, is beautifully put together; the English is flawless and it is well illustrated throughout. For it to appear in this state just two years after it was submitted as a PhD thesis is remarkable. This book will be a key resource for anyone working on Mauretania Tingitana and indeed Roman architectural ornament in the provinces more generally.