The author has used the trustworthy chronological data supplied by the scientific excavation of closed deposits at the Athenian Agora to build a continuous series of lamp types from the 7th century B. C. to the 1st century A. D. Many photographs and profiles of sections permit ready identification, and a handy graphical chart of lamp types facilitates quick checking of the chronological range of each.
"This booklet illustrates various types of pottery lamps made mainly in the Mediterranean world from the Minoan period until Early Christian times. Such lamps can be very attractive small objects and well repay attention. They are of interest to the social and art historian because of the representations of daily life, religion and mythology, and lost masterpieces of sculpture appearing on some Roman lamps. Lamps are useful, too, to the archeologist in that they are ephemeral and are easily recognizable : even small fragments can be placed within their types. These types can, on the whole, e dated comparatively closely, and so, in lamps, the excavator has a valuable dating tool. The distribution of lamps foreign to the area in which they are found is some indication of the pattern of trade in the ancient world, while the various uses to which lamps were put illustrate aspects of social and religious life... "-- from introduction.
At night, the darkness of the ancient Agora would have been pierced by the lights of oil lamps, and thousands of fragments of these distinctive objects have been found. This booklet presents the development of different styles of lamps and includes a very useful identification guide. The author discusses the manufacture of lamps in Athens, a major industry with over 50 known workshops in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. She also provides illustrations of particularly fine examples, including ornate festival lamps with many nozzles and bizarre shapes.
