Terracottas in Motion across the Ancient Mediterranean

This book explores figurative terracottas from the ancient Mediterranean through the over-arching concept of motion, or mobility, as it is found in ritual, identity, sensory and emotional experiences, museum display, and collecting practices. Motion was expressed by the continued replication of terracotta types over centuries and through their passage across time, illustrated by the safeguarding of terracottas that were found in ritual contexts dating from generations later. There was also the physical motion, or change, that occurred when a complete terracotta was broken and deposited during a ritual, while another fragment of the same terracotta was put to ritual use in another contemporary context, or in one that postdated the terracotta by several generations. Conversely, there was movement that occurred when two broken parts of a terracotta were brought together in a gesture of repair to extend their use life. Trade carried terracottas and their molds far from their place of manufacture, while artisans’ mobility enabled them to move across the ancient Mediterranean landscape, bringing their molds with them. Some terracottas were functionally able to move because they were fitted with movable limbs and holes and loops for suspension so they could dangle freely in space; others invited the user to interact by means of elements that could be moved. The choice of motion as the basic framework in this investigation of figurative terracottas illustrates unending possibilities for interpretation.