Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas is a collective volume presenting newly excavated material, as well as diverse and innovative approaches in the study the iconography, function and technology of ancient terracottas.

English summary: The catalogue of all the Egyptian terracotta objects of the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. The presentation of the individual pieces includes a full discussion of their relative chronology and their iconography. Since the material is mostly of unknown provenance, it has been possible to propose a dating almost exclusively on the basis of careful stylistic analysis. Italian description: La catalogazione di tutti gli oggetti in terracotta egiziani di epoca ellenistica e romana conservati nel Museum of Fine Arts di Budapest. La presentazione dei singoli pezzi comprende unampia discussione sulla loro cronologia relativa e sulla loro iconografia. Trattandosi infatti per la maggior parte di materiale di cui non si conosce la provenienza, e stato possibile proporre una datazione quasi esclusivamente sulla base di unaccurata analisi stilistica.

About 24,000 figurines and fragments have been found on Acrocorinth, and this study greatly increases our understanding of the way in which this artform developed over the centuries.

The volume contains a short introduction, a classification by types, a critical catalogue, a register of the dated contexts, concordances and indexes, and an excursus by T. B. L. Webster on the theatrical figurines. Nearly half of the 1,100 items are illustrated with photographs. The subjects of the (mostly fragmentary) figurines are revealing. To the Greek deities of earlier times are added Oriental figures like Serapis, Isis, Harpokrates, Attis, as well as Egyptian priests and Asiatic dancers. The molded "plastic" lamps that are included in this volume were probably made in the same workshops as the figurines.

The articles collected and reprinted here appeared originally in the pages of Hesperia. "Two Centuries of Hellenistic Pottery," by Homer A. Thompson, presented in 1934 some of the pottery found in the early excavations of the American School in the Athenian Agora. The series titled "Three Centuries of Hellenistic Terracottas," by Dorothy B. Thompson, includes ten articles that were published between 1952 and 1966. The working chronology that the authors established has made these studies basic references for investigations of Attic pottery and terracottas of the Hellenistic period, wherever found. In recognition of subsequent discoveries, the Thompsons' work has now been augmented by a preface with bibliography for each, prepared by Susan I. Rotroff, which comments particularly on the changes in chronology resulting from the continuing excavations in the Agora and elsewhere. In "Afterthoughts" Dorothy Thompson has made new observations concerning certain terracottas.