ROMAN OIL LAMP

A hand-formed terracotta oil lamp of the earliest Roman type, the unglazed body pinched and shaped by hand from coarse local clay into its characteristic elongated form. The closed lamp form was developed in the 6th century BC as the rim slowly encroached over the vessel until a single small orifice remained, and lamps prior to the Hellenistic period remained functional, with little decoration and wheel or hand made. This example sits squarely in that tradition: no ornament, no slip, no molded decoration of any kind, just clay shaped to hold oil and a wick. The surface has absorbed over two millennia of age into a warm sandy tone with mineral accretions throughout. An object of total purity; the same form used daily across the entire Roman world to light homes, temples, and burial chambers alike.

ROMAN, 2BC
3" x 2½" x 1¼"