FIAT LUX!
The “ENLIGHTENING” POWER of ANCIENT TERRACOTTA LUCERNAE"
Starting from the discovery of ceramic in the Neolithic age, Terracotta oil lamps (greek: λύχνος; latin: lucernae) represented together with torches and candles, one of the most widespread artefacts inside people’s homes to ensure lighting. Besides this primary function, oil lamps were also commonly used in religious contexts, for example as ex voto (votive offering) in temples, or in the funerary sphere where they could be placed in the hand of the dead or next to his ashes to guide him in the darkness of afterlife and as a symbol of rebirth.
Although over time oil lamps have been produced in many different types of materials (such as stone, glass, bronze but especially terracotta) and shapes that throughout history became more and more complex, it is possible to identify some basic components, typical of these particular kinds of artefacts:
First of all, a cylindrical or hemispherical reservoir (called infibulum), where the fuel was located. The most common fuel used in antiquity was the olive oil but also other oils such as the walnut and sesame, or animal fat could be used for this purpose. The upper part of the reservoir wa sthen characterized by a central area called “disc”, concave or flat, with a filling-hole in the centre. Finally, another fundamental part was the “beak” (rostrum) in which the so called“burning/air- hole” was located and especially where the wick, absorbing and burning the fuel produced the flame. As a wick, the most used material was a braided mineral fibre known with the name of asbestos from the Greek word ασβεστος which means unquenchable precisely because it had the ability to resist fire and burn very slowly.
Diagram of oil lamps features (Westenholz, 2004)
A great turning point in terracotta oil lamp making occurred in the Hellenistic and Roman Republican age when the increasing improvements and development within artisan and craft production favoured the birth of specific workshops specialized in the serial production of terracotta oil lamps through the use of moulds. And It was precisely within these workshops that shortly after, during the Roman Imperial age, appeared for the first time a new type of oil lamp destined to become among the most popular ones: the terracotta oil lamp with flat disc and central figurative decoration. Among the most frequently represented images we find especially those related to the religious sphere, both official (such as the main Gods of the Pantheon with their respective attributes) or introduced and accepted by the Romans (ex. Eastern and Isiac deities); recurrent are the representations of mythological scenes (e.g. Ledra and the swan; Pan and satyrs or deformed dwarfs called Grilloi), works of the regime (like buildings, ports, bridges, triumphal scenes etc.), as well as symbols and personifications especially of the Concord and the Victory through crowns and garlands. However The vast majority of the representations shows scenes linked with games in the circus and in the arena such as gladiator combats or chariot races; animals especially if characterized by some symbolic value (e.g. eagles, doves, crocodiles and beasts that could be seen in the arena) as well as erotic scenes in absolutely uninhibited terms.
From the second part of the 1st century B.C. Cyprus became officially a Roman colony, part of the vast Roman Empire. The new commercial links with the western part of the Mediterranean world allowed the increase of imports in the island not only of primary goods, pottery and fine ware, but also of artistic models and types such as the one of the imperial terracotta oil lamps that from this moment on is well represented and attested in the repertoire of lamps of Cyprus.
In conclusion it is possible to state that unlike the oil lamps of the previous period, Greek or Roman-Republican, which almost entirely without decorations were simply used as functional tools for lighting, the Imperial ones thanks to the visual power of images were also used as potential means of propaganda for the diffusion of political, ideological, or religious messages even in the lower strata of the non-literate population.
Examples of terracotta oil lamps with and without figurative decoration. Museum of George and Nefeli Giabra Pierides collection,
Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Nicosia.
Main References: V. Karageorghis, “Ancient art from Cyprus in the collection of George and Nefeli Giabra Pierides”,
2002; GRAL, “Le arti del fuoco II. Le lucerne antiche, Guida della mostra”, Biassono, 2002.
