Lighting DevicesGreek6th-5th century BCE

Greek Lamp

525-450 BCE

Description

Wheelmade lamp with shallow body, curving walls, curved, inwardly sloping rim, and broad filling hole. Strap handle, angled just above the horizontal, preserved only at joins with body. Small, rounded nozzle is chipped at tip and retains extensive traces of charring. Slightly concave base is not delineated. Doughy appearance. Orange fabric with heavily worn slip ranging in color from dark brown to dark tan. Reconstructed from two large fragments.

Classification

Lighting Devices

Technique

Wheel-made

Medium

terracotta

Culture

Greek

Period

Archaic period, Late, to Early Classical

Century

6th-5th century BCE

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics

Dimensions

2.2 x 7.8 x 6.2 cm (7/8 x 3 1/16 x 2 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Information sheet in object file reads, "Wheel made lamp from Olynthus. It was found in trench 4 and is of buff clay . . . Since much late black-figured ware was found just below the lamps in trench 4, they might date even in the sixth century. In any case this type probably began in the sixth century and became common in the fifth."