Ancient Alexandria, in spite of its fame and importance in the Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, does not come into focus clearly. Even the most rewarding discussions of Alexandria leave us frustratingly aware of the gaps in the historical record (see the recent Getty symposium documented in Kenneth Hamma, ed., Alexandria and Alexandrianism [Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996]). For this reason, Marjorie Susan Venit’s new book on Alexandrian tombs is of great interest. Venit shares her fascination with this compelling city and justifiably credits her subject matter as bearing “eloquent witness to the fame and glory of ancient Alexandria and the diverse community that inhabited [it]” (1).

Venit identifies three major goals of her work. First, she calls scholarly attention to monuments that have been neglected in modern treatments of the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. Second, she offers the volume as an act of conservation, noting that many of the tombs have been destroyed and that the journals that record them are themselves deteriorating rapidly. She adds that American institutions seldom included these reports in their collections. As a result, this book not only forestalls a loss of knowledge but also introduces this subject matter to a wide scholarly audience for the first time. Finally, Venit discusses the tombs in terms of centrality and diversity, iconoclasm and influence within a dynamic ancient population—bringing into focus, in at least one arena of visual culture, shifting Alexandrian attitudes toward religion, ethnicity, politics, and morality.

The book takes the form of a catalogue of monuments arranged chronologically, but with some important alterations to the traditional catalogue format. A complete (and somewhat too succinct) catalogue of monuments is provided in an appendix following the interpretive chapters, while the chapters themselves selectively cover the monuments in light of social and historical themes. These loosely chronological groupings of tombs become the basis for interpretive essays. Chapter 1, for example, uses the lavish but fragmentary Alabaster Tomb to suggest royal funerary and architectural trends in postfoundation Alexandria. It also introduces the topic of ethnicity. The text shows full deference to recent theory on the social construction of identity, but in practice the theme works itself out here and in later chapters mainly at a formal level, linking elements of an iconographic program or of nomenclature to broad categories such as Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, or Christian. The attempt is worth making, and the evidence for ethnic complexity is well presented, but some of Venit’s interpretive strategies are problematic.

I am uneasy about the frequent extrapolations to “nearest parallels,” as from Phoenicia or Ephesus (20), to explain curious features found in Alexandrian tombs. Although Venit is aware of the problematic nature of such juxtapositions and writes with caution, her approach nevertheless relies on an idea of chronological formal developments, as though architectural formulae are uniformly deployed. This is a problem if Alexandrian tombs are to mean something specifically Alexandrian, and such an approach seems to preclude a diverse context. Similarly we risk a reduction of ethnic complexity when we rely on the seemingly solid evidence of names: Miriam or Joseph reasonably points to a Jewish family, but do we really know anything of Miriam’s understanding of religion or her family’s attitudes toward it at the time of her death? Venit appropriately presents this material in her discussion of Alexandrian ethnicity, but perhaps does not go far enough toward qualifying it.

Chapter 2, “The Earliest Alexandrian Monumental Tombs and Their Antecedents,” examines a variety of early cemeteries in and around the ancient city and uses them to construct an evolution toward monumental tombs. Venit here (and always) smoothly and artfully fleshes out the complex archaeological histories of these sites, making them comprehensible to the reader and admirably accomplishing her second goal of conservation. Although an interest in typological and formal traditions dominates the volume, this chapter emphasizes it most strongly. Venit claims that the cemeteries “write the early history of Alexandrian burial types, describing their development from simple graves to complex monumental tombs” (24). However, might the differences in tombs reflect instead the financial or social status of the families that built them? Both simple and elaborate structures may have been erected in the same period but by patrons of varying backgrounds and means. Venit herself acknowledges the ambiguity of the dating criteria and admits the problem of constructing a chronology on this evidence. Yet her presentation seems to dismiss the notion that eclectic architectural developments might elude classification into tidy evolutionary schemes, in which simple structures give way to increasing complexity. The description of the architectural arrangements within the tombs labeled Hypogeum A and B are finely done (28ff.), sensitive to the experiences of those who encountered them and very helpful to modern scholars interested in theorizing reception and social performativity.

One of Venit’s most compelling social theses about the Alexandrian tombs becomes the focus of chapter 3, “Theater of the Dead: Theatricality in Alexandrian Tombs.” In this chapter, some of the finest Ptolemaic tombs (including Tomb Moustapha Pasha I that graces the book’s cover) make an appearance. Here, Venit proposes that a heightened interest in theater, specifically the optical illusionism of scenic architecture and painting, plays an important role in the decoration and use of the tombs. Features that resemble processional walkways, stage platforms, and seating areas figure prominently in these tombs. The thesis is appealing, and Venit is persuasive. The topic is an important one, and more must be written on it: Venit’s work certainly opens up a greatly expanded field for exploring the social dynamic of funerary spectacle. (In this regard, I miss a reference to Bettina Bergmann and Christine Kondoleon, eds., The Art of Ancient Spectacle [Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1999].)

Chapter 4, “The Tombs of Pharos Island: Cultural Interplay and Ethnic Identity,” further explores the dynamic use of Egyptian iconography within architecturally “Greek” tombs. The tombs are wonderful monuments and Venit presents them skillfully, but the chapter is affected by the disciplinary schism between formal analysis and social theory seen in earlier chapters. The chapter is designed to reveal cross-cultural fertilization in these dynamic tomb programs, but it relies on formal description. For example, a painting of Herakles in the Ras el Tin Tomb is described in the following way: “Only the head saves [it] from caricature. It is strongly drawn: the strokes that delineate it and the diadem are executed with fluid mastery” (71). It is a good description of the painting, but one permeated with values that are not necessarily ancient, and the description seems to say nothing about the ethnicities or identities of the tomb’s occupants.

Chapter 5, “The Emergence of the Individual,” and chapter 6, “The Uses of Egypt in Roman Alexandria,” carry the same themes of theatricality, ethnic complexity, and individual creativity into the Roman period. The tomb of Kom-el-Shoqafa deserves particular mention: it is spectacular in its own right and also benefits from Venit’s finest descriptions. The Centurion-Anubis paintings presented here are fascinating documents of cultural synthesis. Chapter 7, “The Legacy of Alexandrian Tombs,” summarizes the later tombs and suggests how Alexandrian tomb practices did or did not survive in the centuries of Rome’s decline, and here, of course, the Christian presence in the tombs is apparent.

Although the author painstakingly makes a case for dating the tombs, I remain unconvinced that they indicate some sort of linear progression. We have far too little information to be making claims of this sort, and furthermore the necessity of housing the dead in fine tombs may allow for more wide-ranging possibilities than those offered by such narrow principles of formal development.

In sum, this work is an important contribution, and one that should be read by all those interested in the multicultural dynamics of the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean. But its promise is also its problem. How are we to join the disciplinary requirements of archaeology (and the constraints of formalist art history) to social and theoretical interests? The traditional catalogue is universally vilified for its stale and fossilizing presentation of data, and Venit has rightly pushed beyond this format. She has been successful in the main, and her book is a model for all those who wish to take documents and artifacts seriously in their attempts to restore a more dynamic understanding of ancient lives.