Acquisition number: 1974.08
Other images
Intact with some blackening about the nozzle from use. Smooth, fine, orange-buff clay with some mica and small white inclusions; pale buff on the surface. Lug handle. There is a channel around the upper face. On the shoulder at each side is a spray or wreath in relief. In the channel at the bridge between spout and body, a cross with three dots about it. The junction between the upper and lower halves is clearly visible. Ring foot.
Title: Roman Lamp - 1974.08
Acquisition number: 1974.08
Culture or period: Roman Imperial
Date: 4th - 5th century AD.
Material: Clay - Terracotta
Object type: Lamps - Terracotta
Dimensions: 80mm (l) × 60mm (w) × 30mm (h)
Origin region or location: Syria
Display case or on loan: 11
Keywords: Roman, Imperial, Syria, Lamp, Cross, Roman Syria, Christian
Charles Ede Ltd (London), Catalogue 98 (October 1974) no. 20 (ill.); J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U. (Canberra, 1981) 81.
1974.08
Roman Lamp
Purchased. Ht (lip) ca 3cm; diam. 6cm; length 8cm.
Intact with some blackening about the nozzle from use. Smooth, fine, orange-buff clay with some mica and small white inclusions; pale buff on the surface. Lug handle. There is a channel around the upper face. On the shoulder at each side is a spray or wreath in relief. In the channel at the bridge between spout and body, a cross with three dots about it. The junction between the upper and lower halves is clearly visible. Ring foot.
Syrian, perhaps of the fourth or more probably fifth century AD. Typically late features, apart from the Christian symbol of the cross, are the rudimentary handle, the channelling around the upper face, and the large oil-hole rather than a disc in the centre. Compare, for instance, Szentleleky, Ancient Lamps no. 247ff (a good general survey).
Closer are S. Djuric, Ancient Lamps from the Mediterranean (Toronto 1995) nos 296-297, two examples, one of them with a cross, and I. Modrzeneska-Marciniale, “Lampes d’Arab Safina (Syrie), l’étude typologique et chronologique”, Archeologia 28, 1977, 149 type 2, no. 33, fig. 2. Note also M. Berbes, “Un loto de lucernas ingresado en el Museo arqueologico de Barcelone”, Ampurias 25, 1963, 234-240, lamps nos 8 and 9.R. Rosenthal and R. Sivan, Ancient Lamps in the Schloessinger Collection (Qedem 8, 1978) place the type under their Islamic Lamps Group 1, variant A.a, but the type is hardly Islamic.
A further, so far unpublished, example of the type, but without cross, is in the Nicholson Museum, Sydney, inv. 94.69.
On the emergence of the cross as a symbol, see M. Loconsole, Il segno della croce. Storia e liturgia (Bari 2009).
Charles Ede Ltd (London), Catalogue 98 (October 1974) no. 20 (ill.); J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U. (Canberra, 1981) 81.