Lamp Classifications
Pottery Lamps
Open Saucer and Pinched Nozzle Lamps (Item #11 and Item #9)
These are the earliest forms of lamp from the Mediterranean Basin. Saucer lamps were first made by hand-molding but then would later become wheel-thrown. These lamps used a free-floating wick until the Middle Bronze Age when saucer lamps with pinched or folded rims appeared in Egypt and the Syrio-Palestinian area. The pinched nozzle was a technological advancement that by holding the wick in place, prevented it from sinking or burning up, and focused light more precisely. Lamps with folded rims are often referred to as "cocked-hat" lamps.
Early Closed-bodied Lamps
The shift from open-bodied lamps to closed-bodied lamps happened gradually, beginning around 5th century BCE Greece. Closed bodies protected the wick and oil from spillage and contamination, and also allowed artists to add decoration to the vessel.
Greek and Mold-Made Hellenistic Lamps
These lamps were produced during the third and first centuries BCE primarily in Asia Minor and Egypt. Hellenistic lamps typically had a round, enclosed body with an elongated nozzle. They did not typically have a handle, they rather had a side lug; which is a protrusion on the right side of the lamp that was used to hang the lamp when not in use. Later these side lugs would become more decorative than functional.
Early Roman Lamps
By the first century BC, Early Roman lamp makers were producing mold-made lamps stylistically similar to the lamps of Hellenistic Egypt and Asia Minor. Early Roman lamps had the same round, enclosed body and side lug as Hellenistic lamps, but with the addition of a handle. These lamps usually also had a clay slip.
Imperial Roman Lamps
During the Roman Imperial Period, lamp makers across the empire were producing several different types of lamps that were then imported across the Basin.
A lamp style known as Howland 50c was common in the Eastern Mediterranean from 50 BC to 50 AD. They were similar to Hellenistic lamps with round, enclosed bodies and elongated nozzles. They now had handles.
One of the most popular types of lamps of Imperial Rome was the factory lamp that originated in Northern Italy at the end of the first century AD. Factory lamps were mold-made and uniform in shape with a sunken discus surrounded by a rim and channel between the nozzle and the body. Some had handles, but most did not. They were massively produced and exported across the Roman Empire.
Another mold-made lamp that was mass produced were Discus lamps. These lamps emerged from Italy at the end of the first century BC. Its distinctive features are its large, concave discus and voluted nozzle. These lamps could be decorated or undecorated. Decoration ranged from geometric motifs to mythical scenes.
Roman lamps were imported all over the basin due to the enormous size of the Empire. (Some we have are classified currently as "Roman Lamps of the Holy Land")
Nabatean Lamps
Nabatean lamps from present-day Jordan are very similar to Greco-Roman lamps in form, but incorporate decorative motifs from across the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world that indicate their origin in Nabatean workshops. Their "international style" of decoration include rosettes common in Jewish lamps, conch motifs (the original lamps of pre-historic Mesopotamia), Egyptian sun rays, Phoenician flowers, and Hellenistic Volutes.
Syrian, Palestinian, and Arabic Lamps
Around the end of the Roman Period, a new style of mold-made lamps came into production around Samaria. These lamps had vertical handles and rather than a discus, they had pronounced shoulders with decorative motifs.
These lamps can be divided into two smaller subcategories: Early and Late Periods. Early period lamps were characterized by small, round bodies with short nozzles. Shoulder decorations varied from religious scenes to representations of daily items. Late period lamps were larger and teardrop shaped with a larger fill hole. The shoulder decorations were of geometric or plant motifs.
Nabatean lamps were produced in and around Jordan. They were mold-made with thick sides and short, voluted nozzles.
Early Islamic / The Levant Lamps
Lamps that coincide with the Late Roman Empire are harder to identify due to the large number of imported lamps and the local artistic traditions branching away from the early Roman lamp iconography. Lamps of Levantine origin typically had a triangular handle and decorative floral motifs.
These lamps are closely related to Byzantine lamps technically, iconographically, and geographically. These lamps are teardrop shaped and mold-made. They had large fills holes and lacked handles. The most common decorative motifs were crosses, palm branches, candlesticks, and radial patterns.