A Long Tradition
Oil lamps have been used around the Mediterranean and in the Near East from the Bronze Age until modern times. Most surviving ancient examples are ceramic, but lamps were also made of metal and occasionally of stone. The lamps in the collection date from the Late Bronze Age to the Byzantine period, a span of over a thousand years. During this millennium lamp forms change from open saucers to enclosed ovals with tubular spouts.

In the Roman Imperial period (1st - 3rd centuries A.D.), lamps were decorated with molded relief, which depicted gods, humans, animals, or floral designs. Visible on the base of one lamp (1995.10.1002), dating to the 2nd century A.D., is a maker's mark in the shape of a tiny footprint.

Oil lamps were used wherever extra light was needed, in homes and shops, in mines and theaters. They could be placed in specially designed stands, set in niches in walls, or simply carried by hand. Lamps were also used in ceremonies associated with burial and memorial services, or presented as offerings in sanctuaries. Lamps placed in tombs usually survived intact. The Cesnola Collection lamps probably all came from tombs. Some of these seem never to have been lit as there is no trace of burning on the nozzles/wick holders.

The use of oil lamps was linked to the availability of fuel. Olive oil, produced throughout the Mediterranean, constituted not only a basic dietary ingredient, but also a ready supply of lamp fuel. The scarcity of olive oil may have limited the use of lamps in certain parts of the ancient world. For example, oil lamps were less common in Roman Britain, where it was too cold for olive trees to grow, than in Roman Cyprus, where olive trees were abundant, and still are to this day. Recent evidence has shown that beeswax was also used as an illuminant.

Wheel-Thrown and Mold-Made
In the Bronze and Iron Ages, lamps were either hand-built or wheel-thrown in saucer shapes, with a pinch in the rim forming a spout, which was the wick-holder. Classical and Hellenistic lamps were all wheel-made in globular, closed shapes, sometimes with long protruding nozzles. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. molding replaced wheel throwing as the predominant method of lamp manufacture. Molds were made in clay or plaster from a prototype lamp, or patrix. Several identical molds could be taken from a single patrix and then be used to mass-produce copies.

In the Roman provinces, potters seem to have used imported Italian lamps as a patrix, casting molds directly on the imported original. This method, called "surmoulage," resulted in the rather blurred relief decoration often found on Roman provincial lamps - and certainly this was the case on Cyprus. The lack of sharp relief could also have resulted from the gradual abrasion of the mold as it was used over and over again.