D.M. Bailey, Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, vol. 1 - Greek, Hellenistic and Early Roman Pottery Lamps (London, 1975). 

H. Jackson, “The Common Wares from the Housing Insula”, in: H. Jackson and J. Tidmarsh, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, vol. 3 - The Pottery (Sydney, 2011) 1-261.

R. Rosenthal and R. Sivan, Ancient Lamps in the Schloessinger Collection (Jerusalem, 1978).

S. Rotroff, The Athenian Agora, vol. 29 - Athenian and Imported Wheelmade Table Ware and Related Material (Princeton, 1997).

2012.10

Roman lamp

Purchased in Syria and on loan from Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke

Length 13cm; width 10cm; height 4cm

Intact, in fair condition; some discoloration and flaking, particularly to the side ring handle. Mould-made lamp, large filling hole with concave rim, relief petals radiating around it. Elongated and upturned spout, low base. Traces of red slip.

Modified lamps with elongated nozzles were traditionally thought to have been used as lamp fillers. Further evidence, however, such as vessels with teeth marks around the spout (R. Rosenthal and R. Sivan, Ancient Lamps in the Schloessinger Collection (Jerusalem, 1978) 166), has led to the wide-spread suggestion that such items were used to feed infants, and perhaps also invalids. The classification of these lamps as either fillers or feeders remains variable (S. Rotroff, The Athenian Agora, vol. 29 (Princeton, 1997) 7). A comparatively long spout that is similarly angled to the one on the present lamp, and which was found at excavations at Jebel Khalid in north Syria, is recorded as undoubtedly from a baby-feeder, especially as the spout appears to show wear from use (H. Jackson, “The Common Wares from the Housing Insula”, in: H. Jackson and J. Tidmarsh, Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, vol. 3 (Sydney, 2011) 100).

Ancient baby-feeders come in a variety of shapes. Two baby-feeders manufactured by lamp workshops and held by the British Museum have very similar spouts to the present lamp, but are larger and more jug-like (D.M. Bailey, Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, vol. 1 (London, 1975) pl. 148). Feeders could also be quite bulbous with a shorter, but still upward-angled, spout (see, for example, 1966.39). For an example of an eastern provincial vessel with a notably similar shape to the present lamp (classified as a lamp filler, although the possibility it might be a baby-feeder is noted), see R. Rosenthal and R. Sivan, Ancient Lamps in the Schloessinger Collection (Jerusalem, 1978) 166, no. 689.

On loan from Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke (received 9 March 2012)