Byzantine Pottery Oil Lamps from the Levant

Many of the ancient lamps on our website are Byzantine, mainly from the Levant (what is now southern Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel / Palestine). Unlike Roman hard fired ceramic red slip lamps of earlier centuries, Byzantine lamps tend to be made from low fired pottery and their designs reflect Christian symbolism.

In the Roman period, hard fired red slip lamps, of the types widely known from Italy and the European provinces and from North Africa — here is an example: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i30.html — were never widespread in the Levantine region. Instead, a wide range of low fired pottery lamps were made for differing communities, including Samaritans, Hellenized city dwellers, strictly observant Jews, and Roman immigrants involved in trade or the local administration.

One clearly distinguishing characteristic of Byzantine Levantine lamps is their difference in shape compared to earlier Roman types. The large circular discus that served as a platform for decorative images on most Roman examples disappears during the Byzantine period, with the result that most decoration, either abstract patterns or specific Christian symbols, tend to be concentrated along the shoulders of lamps or just beneath the wick hole on the nozzle. Here is an example – http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i340.html

Most are remarkably simple and utilitarian: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i360.html

Others are elaborately decorated with clear iconography: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i404.html

When the Levantine provinces of the Byzantine Empire fell to the Islamic armies in the mid-7th Century, there was no immediate change in styles. But change did slowly come. Some transitional types still include elaborate floral or abstract decoration – http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i379.html
Others show a clear shift away from Byzantine style towards purely geometric decoration – http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i303.html

For other examples of Byzantine lamps, all with clear provenance and detailed reference information, follow these links -
* http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i306.html
* http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i310.html
* http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i265.html

To visit our Ancient Oil Lamps page, go to: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c14_p1.html

Ancient Ceramic Oil Lamps at Clio Ancient Art

Ancient pottery oil lamps, and especially ancient Roman lamps, offer antiquities collectors the opportunity to specialize in a very specific area of collecting.
 
The range of different types, ranging from black glazed Hellenistic-inspired types in time of the Republic through the North African and Syro-Palestinian types with Christian-inspired decoration during Byzantine transition, span a period of some 500 years.
 
The range of ceramic fabrics, decorative schemes, shape variations and maker’s marks seem virtually limitless, and local lamp production took place in every region of the Roman Empire.
 
Some ancient oil lamp collectors specialize in the so-called “Factory Lamps” from Gaul and Italy in the 1st Century CE, others in the profusion of low-fired unglazed pottery lamps from the greater Levantine region, including, Samarian, Jewish, Roman-imitative, early Christian types, as well as Byzantine and early Islamic examples. Still other collectors focus on the long history of decorated red slip ceramic lamps of the North African provinces, especially Tunisia.
 
Oil lamps are of great value to archaeology, as well. With their well documented maker’s marks (and copies of these, much like cheap knock-offs or counterfeits of major brands today) and styles, lamps recovered in context offer valuable dating evidence. They also provide many clues to the movement of goods and people over time.
 
Prior to the introduction of modern laws governing the export of antiquities from most Mediterranean countries, that is, prior to the 1960s and ’70s, great numbers of ancient Roman lamps were collected. While a great many have since been donated to public art museums (this author has donated several examples to museum collections), there is still great availability. Fine quality examples, often with meaningful decoration on their discoi (the term for the central round space on a lamp's upper surface), are still undervalued in relation to other areas of the art market.
 
Clio Ancient Art offers many examples for sale at reasonable prices, including examples of all the types mentioned above.
 
Here is a link to our “Ancient Oil Lamps” page: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c14_p1.html

 A few examples are shown below, with links to those pages.

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i128.html

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i63.html

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i400.html 

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i404.html

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i68.html

A Useful Tool: Our “Sold Antiquities” Page

http://www.clioancientart.com/id18.html

This is the link to our “Sold Antiquities” page, which includes images and brief descriptions of objects we’ve sold over the last couple of years. By virtue of the great number of items it displays, it is a very useful tool both for researching antiquities in general, and specifically for tracking antiquities we’ve sold. So often, antiquities with perfectly legitimate provenance pass from a dealer to a private collector, then perhaps to another collector or dealer, and loose their provenance information in the process. Using this page, items we’ve sold may be traced back to Clio Ancient Art and their long term provenance established.

Here’s the link again: http://www.clioancientart.com/id18.html

Enjoy!

Additions to our Website

Earlier this week we uploaded a few really fine antiquities to our website. One has already sold. These all have great provenance. Here are images and links to these objects –

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i401.html 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c14_p1.html

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i399.html

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i398.html