Terracotta Oil Lamp – Holy Land
Byzantine era, Circa 7th- 8th Century AD.
Attractive and well-crafted mold-made red-brown terracotta oil lamp of circular design. The body has a domed central discus with filler hole. The shoulder has two steps, set off from the body with a raised spike design. A wick hole is opposite a small pinched handle. The central discus portrays a large bunch of grapes surrounded by smaller grapevines. Intact and well preserved with some surface deposits.
Diameter: 3 inches, Height: 1.25 inches
For lamps of similar shape and origin see Berk, “The Wiesclaw Collection of Oil Lamps”, # 219, 220 and 221.
Provenance: ex Midwestern private collection, acquired in Turkey c 1964.
Terracotta oil lamps were the primary means of artificial lighting in the villas, palaces and shops of the Greek, Roman and Byzantine Empires. They were usually filled with olive oil and held a wick. Linen was the most often used wick material.
