Lamps

Introduction by J.R. Green

Clay lamps were the commonest source of artificial light in antiquity. Despite all elaborations of form, they worked simply by having a wick in the nozzle and the body filled with oil. They gave much the same amount of light as a candle, and finds indicate that, like candles, they were sometimes used in large numbers. The basic development is from open shapes such as the dish-like 1973.30, to types with nozzles and steep sides but still essentially open, like the Sicilian lamps in the collection, and then to closed shapes like the Roman lamps 1978.08 and 1974.08 or the Late Antique 1990.05. Earlier lamps were made on the wheel but many Roman examples were made in moulds, whether wholly or in part, a technique which allowed more elaborate decoration.

A good basic introduction is D.M. Bailey’s British Museum booklet Greek and Roman Pottery Lamps (2nd ed., London 1972) or his article “Pottery Lamps” in: D. Strong and D. Brown (eds), Roman Crafts (London 1976) 93-103 (especially for techniques of manufacture); also T. Szentleleky, Ancient Lamps (Budapest - Chicago 1969). H. Menzel, Antike Lampen2 (Mainz 1969) also gives a good series although some aspects are now rather dated. Fundamental works in the classification of Greek and Roman lamps are O. Broneer, Corinth IV.2 .Terracotta Lamps (Cambridge, Mass., 1930) and R.H. Howland, The Athenian Agora iv. Greek Lamps and their Survivals (Princeton 1958). Also extremely useful are D.M. Bailey, Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum (London, i 1975, ii 1980, iii 1988, iv 1996), and Chr. Lyon-Caen and V. Hoff, Musée du Louvre. Catalogue des lampes en terre cuite grecques et chrétiennes (Paris 1986). There is also a handy bibliographical survey by D.M. Bailey, “Lamps Metal, Lamps Clay: A Decade of Publication”, Journal of Roman Archaeology 4, 1991, 51-62.

For broader interpretations of lamps as archaeological evidence, see Ph. Bruneau, “Les lampes et l’histoire économique et sociale de la Grèce”, in: P. Lévêque and J.-P. Morel (eds), Céramiques hellénistiques et romaines (Ann.Lit.Besançon no. 242, Paris 1980) 19-54, and W.V. Harris, “Roman Terracotta Lamps: the Organisation of an Industry”, Journal of Roman Studies 70, 1980, 126-146. On their use and some feelings about their use and the senses evoked, see the references in Green, Logeion 6, 2016, 285-307, esp. 297-299 and the references there.

Useful are the proceedings of the on-going conferences, Lychnological Acts, edited so far by Laurent Chrzanovski who is also responsible for a number of other publications focussed on regional productions.

The fuel used in lamps is generally assumed to have been olive oil, and so it probably was in countries such as Greece and Italy, but other plant-derived oils were also employed as well as, in some cases, derivatives from animal fats: e.g. A.S. Mayyas et al., “Fuel For Lamps: Organic Residues Preserved in Iron Age Lamps Excavated at the Site of Sahab in Jordan”, Archaeometry 59.5, 2017, 934-948.

Other lamps are included in the collection of material from Malta elsewhere in this catalogue.