Greek Lamps and Their Survivals

321 Pages·2008·0English

THE ATHENIANAG ORA
RESULTS OF EXCAVATIONS
CONDUCTED BY
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS

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C GREEK LAMPS AND THEIR SURVIVALS
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S C RICHARD HUBBARD HOWLAND

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THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
1958
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Athenian Agora ®
www.jstor.org
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FRONTISPIECE
Selected specimens of Athenian lamps, presenting a synoptic illustrationo f some developmentsi n local
manufacturingf rom the early 7th century B.C. into the 1st century after Christ.
From left to right, and from the upper row to the bottom: Types 1, 2 B, 4, 16 B, 20, 24 A, 25 B,
25 C Prime,2 9 A, 43 C, 48 B, 52 F, 53.
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY J. H. FURST CO., BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
PREFACE
In the following study an attempt is made to establish a series of types of Greek and early
Roman terracotta lamps, and to publish representative examples of these types in a catalogue.
The purpose of this work is not only to make known the definitive results of the excavations of
the Athenian Agora as far as certain clay lamps are concerned, but also to furnish a reliable guide
s
n for archaeologists who may be able to use these types of lamps as criteria for dating deposits on
e .
Dother sites, wherever they may be in the Mediterranean area.
h
t N The corpus of lamps from the Athenian Agora was assigned to the author in 1938, for eventual
A
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Cpublication, by the late Professor T. Leslie Shear, Director of the Agora Excavations until his
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a Ndeath. The Greek lamps found during the first seven years of excavation formed the basis for a

s Y-doctoral dissertation accepted by the Johns Hopkins University in 1946, entitled " Greek Lamps
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i Bfrom the Athenian Agora." The present study is an outgrowth of this dissertation, utilizing all
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u C-of the material from subsequent seasons of excavation through the spring of 1954; it has been in
St Cprocess of compilation since 1950.
cal se: peopTleh we haou thhaovre waiodueldd ilnik teh eto p erxepparersast iohnis oaf ptphrise cbiaotoiokn e iatnhder vbeyry u sweafurml s uthgagnesktsio ntos aan ndu vmabluearb olef
si ninformation or in other practical ways. These helpful friends include the senior scholars of the
s eAthenian Agora, mentioned by name in the Introduction, and in addition Mr. Lucas Benachi,
a c
Cl LiProfessor Oscar Broneer, Mrs. Richard Erstein, Miss Sarah Elizabeth Freeman, Miss Anne Fuller,
. Miss Clairbve Grandjouan, Mrs. Margaret Larson Lethen, Mrs. Foti Likiardopoulo, Miss Anne
f y
o lMcCabe, Mrs. William MacLean, Miss Judith Perlzweig, Mrs. Symington Perin, the late Professor
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ol oDavid M. Robinson, Professor Richard Rowe, and Mrs. Evelyn L. Smithson.
o e The profiles and the drawings of signatures, graffiti and dipinti are the work of Mrs. Aliki
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c sBikakis, Mrs. Norman Herz, Mr. John Travlos and Professor John H. Young. The photographs
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S are by Miss Alison Frantz. My special thanks go to Miss Lucy Talcott of the Agora Excavations
n alwhose work concerned with the deposit summaries and other lists appearing below should make
ca onthis study more useful than it could otherwise be, and to Miss Lucy Shoe.
i s
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e er RICHARD HUBBARD HOWLAND
m p THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION
A r WASHINGTON
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE ..................... V
LISTO FP LATES . .................... iii

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n ABBREVIATIONS AND SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ......... ix
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h INTRODUCTION . ..... . . . . . . ... .... 1
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C TYPES OF LAMPS
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s - TYPES1 -2 (HANDMADE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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d - TYPES 3-40 (WHEELMADE) . . . ............. 1
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S C TYPE 41 SANCTUARY LAMPS .............128

cal se: TYPES 42-58 (MOULDMADE) ............. 19
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s e MISCELLANEOUS MOULDED LAMPS . . ............ 11
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C L SIGNED BASES . . . .. . . .. ........ 14

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o l CONCORDANCE OF AGORA INVENTORY NUMBERS, LAMP TYPES AND
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ol o CATALOGUE NUMBERS ....... 221
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s INDEX OF DEPOSITS .... ............ . .34
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n al CONCORDANCEO F BRONEER AND AGORA TYPES .........246
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c o INDEX .9................. ..... .247
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e er GENERAL 247
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r INSCRIPTIONS .................. 251
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PLATES
CHART
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LIST OF PLATES
PLATE
1 - 91 Profiles of Lamps, Types 1-44
2as-24 Graffiti and Dipinti

s 25 - 28 Signatures
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D 29-55 Photographs of Lamps
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A - 56 Actual State Plan of the Athenian Agora
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a N Chart Chronological Distribution of Types

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viii
ABBREVIATIONSA ND SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aegina =- Adolf Furtwiingler, Ernst Fiechter, and Hermann Thiersch, Aegina das Heiligtum der Aphaia,
Munich, 1906.
Agora, Pottery of the Roman Period =- Henry S. Robinson, The Athenian Agora, Results of Excavations
conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. V, Pottery of the Roman
Period, Chronology (in press).
A. J. A. - American Journal of Archaeology.

s Antioch - Frederick O. Waage, Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Vol. III, " Lamps," Princeton, 1941.
n
e .Arch. Anz. = Archiologischer Anzeiger.
h DB. C. H. = Bulletin de correspondance hellenique.
t NBroneer = Oscar Broneer, Corinth, Vol. IV, Part II, Terracotta Lamps, Cambridge, Mass., 1930.
A
C-Broneer, Oscar, "A Late Type of WheelmadeL amp from Corinth,"A merican Journal of Archaeology,
at N XXXI, 1927, pp. 329-337.
s -Cesnola, Luigi Palma di, A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the
e Y Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston, 1885.
di BClara Rhodos = Clara Rhodos, Studi e materiali pubblicati a cura dell'istituto storico-archeologico di
u C- Rodi, Rhodes, 1928-1941.
St CCourby, Fernand, Les vases grecs a reliefs, Paris, 192g.
Davidson, Gladys, Small Objects from the Pnyx: I (Hesperia, Suppl. VII), 1943.
al e:Delattre, Alfred Louis, Les Lampes antiques du Musee de St. Louis de Carthage, Lille, 1889.
c sDeonna, Waldemar, "Les Lampes antiques trouvees 'a Dlos," Bulletin de correspondance
si n hellUnique,
XXXII, 1908, pp. 133-176.
s e
a cDressel, Heinrich, "La Suppellettile dell'antichissima necropoli Esquilina," Annali dell'instituto di
Cl Li corrispondenza archeologica, LII, 1880, pp. 265-342.
. 'E4. "Apx. : "'ApXatLo0oyLtK.
of yGjerstad, E'iEnqaprO eept' La l., The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Vol. II, Stockholm, 1935.
l
l nHesperia= Hesperia, Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
o o
o Hug, Arnold, "Lucerna," Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopaedie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft,
h e XIII, Stuttgart, 1927.
s
c uJ. H. S. = Journal of Hellenic Studies.
S Lindos = Christian Blinkenberg, Lindos, Fouilles de l'Acropole, Vol. I, Les petits Objets, Berlin, 1931.
n alMenzel, Heinz, Antiken Lampen im Romisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum zu Mainz, Mainz, 1954.
a nMon. Ant. = Monumenti antichi pubblicati per cura della (Reale) Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
c o
i sOlynthus = David M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus, Part V, Baltimore, 1933, Part XIV, Balti-
er r more, 1952.
e
m pOsborne,A lfred, Lychnos et Lucerna, Alexandria, 1924.
A Pfuhl, Ernst, "Zur Geschichte der griechischen Lampen und Laternen," Jahrbuch des deutschen
r
o archdiologischen Instituts, XXVII, 1912, pp. 52-59.
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Priene = Theodore Wiegand and Hans Schrader, Priene, Berlin, 1904.
Tarsus = Hetty Goldman, ed., Excavations at G6zli Kule, Tarsus, Vol. I, Princeton, 1950.
Thera = F. Frhr. Hiller von Girtringen, Thera: Untersuchungen, Vermessungen und Ausgrabungen in
den Jahren 1895-1902, Berlin, 1899-1909.
Toutain, J., "Lucerna," Daremberg, Saglio, et Pottier, Dictionnaire des Antiquitis grecques et romains,
Vol. III B, Paris, 1904.
Waldhauer =- Oskar Waldhauer, Die antiken Tonlampen der Kaiserlichen Ermitage, St. Petersburg, 1914.
Walters = H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum, London,
1914.
ix
INTRODUCTION
SCOPEO F STUDY
This study is a survey of all terracotta lamps of Greek types and their successors of the early
Roman period, inventoried in the excavations of the Athenian Agora through March, 1954; occa-
sional reference will be made to pieces of unusual interest found too late for inclusion in this
catalogue.
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n The year 86 B.C.i s a convenient date for students of Athenian history to choose as a demar-
e D.cation between the Hellenistic and Roman periods in Athens. In that year Sulla's invasion of the
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t Ncity marked the beginning of Roman hegemony. All lamps made before 86 B.C. may be classed
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C-as Greek or Hellenistic, but even after that critical year a few Hellenistic forms continued to be
at Nmade, well on into the middle years of the 1st century after Christ. A number of new types also
s -developed after 86 B.c., depending upon the old tradition of late Hellenistic forms even though
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i Bthey were manufactured much later. All these survivals are included here, together with the
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-small groups of wheelmade lamps that persisted long after 86 B.c., continuing a much earlier
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t tradition. The increasingly popular moulded lamps, of Italian inspiration, which drove all earlier
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varieties from the Athenian market in the late 1st century after Christ, will be the subject of a
al e:separate study by Miss Judith Perlzweig; with this will appear also a study of plastic lamps which
c s
si nare essentially Roman rather than late Hellenistic, by Miss Claireve Grandjouan.
s e It must be emphasized that this publication is selective; about one-third of the lamps inven-
a c
l itoried from the Agora Excavations are catalogued here. Lamps have been chosen for presentation
C L
here either because they come from contexts that contribute to the dating of the type, or because
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of ythey are well preserved and furnish good illustrative material, because they bear signatures,
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l ngraffiti or dipinti, or because they offer some unique feature, in which case they are usually classed
o o
o as variants of standard types.
e
h s This study is also selective in that it is concerned only with lamps that were made or used
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S uin Athens; it is not a comprehensive survey of all Greek lamps. When, however, lamps from other

n alcenters of production appear here as importations, the typological description or the catalogue
a nwill include some discussion of the probable places of origin. In a comparable manner, some
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i sattention is given to factors that indicate the export of Athenian lamps all over the Mediterranean
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e erarea, since thousands of lamps, as well as decorated vases, were made in Attica for the export
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ptrade during a period of from five to six hundred years. Every available reference to a previous
A
orpublication of an Attic lamp, whether found in Athens or elsewhere, will not, however, be cited
© Fhere. Only those comparisons are utilized that contribute materially to a closer understanding of
date or morphology or of the export trade. Lamps in other public or private collections are like-
wise noted only when they have a contribution to bring to this study. Most of the lamps in the
museums of Europe and the United States are standard types, with little clue as to provenance
and seldom any hint of having been found in closed or dated deposits.
Although there are several typologies of Greek lamps already in existence, the best known and
most useful being that by Oscar Broneer based on the lamps found in the excavations at Corinth
prior to it has seemed desirable to devise yet another typology. The number and variety
1930,'
of Greek and Roman lamps found in the Agora Excavations have vastly exceeded those that
1 Corinth, Results of Excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies, Vol. IV, Part II,
Terracotta Lamps, Cambridge, Mass., 1980.
1
2 THE ATHENIAN AGORA: GREEK LAMPS
were available in Corinth at the time of Professor Broneer's study. It has been possible to recog-
nize new types that had not occurred in Corinth, and also to establish as independent types some
that were grouped together in the Corinth publication. The corpus of Greek and early Roman
lamps that is there classified under nineteen types has been expanded into fifty-eight types, with
some subdivisions, for the lamps from the Athenian Agora. To facilitate cross reference between
the two publications, the Corinth classification, where a corresponding one exists, appears here in
the heading to the discussion of each Agora type, and a concordance (p. 246) equates the Agora
to the Broneer types.

s METHODS OF DATING AND ARRANGEMENT OF MATERIAL
n
e D. It would be folly to codify any such large number of types if there were only morphological
h
Nchanges to record. Happily the Agora Excavations have offered a valuable contribution: a means
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A -of dating more or less precisely this increased number of types. Over 1200 closed deposits, con-
C
at Nsisting of wells, cisterns, shafts, graves, building fills and other strata have been discovered since
s -the beginning of the excavations in 1931; the majority of these have now been analyzed and
Y
e dated on the internal evidence of pottery, ostraka, coins, etc., or the external evidence given byr
i B
d -their relation to buildings of known date such as the Stoa of Attalos. A large number of deposits
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t contain lamps or lamp fragments which acquire the over-all dates assigned to the deposits. The
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dating suggested for the Agora types is thus in almost all cases based on two considerations:

al e:first, the circumstances of finding, where the piece comes from a closed or closely dateable deposit;
sic nsand second, the stylistic relationships between the types and sub-types themselves.
s e Most deposits contain more than one type of lamp. It must be emphasized that during any
a cgiven decade, except in the early years when lamps first appeared, i. e. in the 7th century, the
l i
C Lfabricants were producing several distinct varieties. Older craftsmen and shops would continue to

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f yproduce styles familiar to them and to the customers in their youth; at the same time younger
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nlamp-makers would offer developments that would lead to new types or would be easily influenced
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by foreign imports coming into Athens. At certain times, particularly in the 3rd and 2nd centuries
o
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h sB.c., competition was keen and rival shops competed for trade with many varieties of lamps.
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S uThus, for instance, the household debris of a single family, accumulated over a period of ten to

n altwenty years and thrown gradually into an abandoned well used as a dump, may easily contain
a nfragments of eight to ten separate types of lamps. Since there is this overlapping of types within
ic sothe individual deposits, a fairly precise dating of any single type may be obtained by analyzing the
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e rseveral deposits in which it occurs, and then choosing the period of overlap of the deposits for the
e
m pyears of the type's floruit. By applying this method a fairly restricted chronological range has
A r been assigned to many of the Agora's fifty-eight types and subdivisions.
o
© F A chart at the end of the volume shows graphically the duration as well as the overlap of the
various types. This chart is designed to furnish a quick and accurate chronological table.
Athenian lamps, widely exported in antiquity, are recognized as one of the most effective means
of dating various deposits; it is hoped that this arrangement will increase their usefulness.
The dates assigned to the individual types are the maximum over-all dates. Although some
types flourished for short periods and others for very long times, it has not always been possible
to define the exact years for all types. In such instances the widest possible extent of the type's
floruit is noted, rather than the minimum number of years during which it was certainly current.
The reader is cautioned against regarding the type numbers as a strict indication of chron-
ology. This they could not in any case be, because of the overlap between types and the variation
in length of life, as already noted. Moreover it has seemed advisable to follow a given line of
development through to its end rather than to break a sequence by inserting lamps which although
INTRODUCTION 3
contemporarym ay be otherwiseu nrelatedt o the types under discussion,.I n particulari t should
be noted that the wheelmadel amps are carriedo n to their last appearancei n the 1st century after
Christb eforet he discussiono f the mouldedl amps, which first appeari n the early 3rd century B.c.,
is undertaken. The chronologicalr elationshipsb etween types may be best seen on the chart.
The inclusive catalogue numberso f the lamps discussedi n this publicationa re listed at the
beginningo f the discussiono f each type; there is also a statement as to the numbero f others of
the type includedi n the Agorai nventory. The total serves to give a generali ndicationa s to which
types were particularlyr are and which most commoni n the Agora area. In the headingso f some
types there is given, in Roman numerals, the classificationt o which the type belongs in the
s typology developed by Broneer for the lamps of Corinth (Corinth,V ol. IV, Part II, Terracotta
n Lamps); this is useful since Broneer'st ypes have been widely followed by scholarsf or a quarter
e .
D
h century. Where no referencet o one of Broneer'st ypes appearsi t may be assumed that there is
N
At no counterparta mong the lamps from Corinthp ublishedi n his volume.
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C In the cataloguew hich follows the discussiono f each type the readeri s referredb y means of
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a Nthe deposit number2 to the Index of Deposits, pp. 234-245,w here all lamps includedi n this study

s Y- and comingf rom dated depositsa re listed undert heir findingp laces. In all cases the date given for
e
di B a deposit is its lowest limit.
u C- Wheren o context or deposit numberi s cited for a lamp, the readerm ay infer either that the
t
S Cdeposit was not essential to the present purposeo r else that it appearedi n some way unreliable,
al e: as for instance in the case of contexts too late to be relevant or contexts the dating of which
c smight have leaned heavily on the lamps themselves. For the Signed Bases the proportiono f
si nunlisted contexts is high, since the excavatorsh ave been at pains to preservea ny fragmenth aving
s e
a ca trace of an inscription,w hether from a reliable deposit or not.
Cl Li The pottery and other material by which these deposits may be dated has in many cases
. already been published,e ither in whole or in part. In other cases the dates quoted are based on
f y
o lpre-publications tudies by various students who have been or are now at work on material of
n
ol odifferentc ategoriesa nd periods from the Athenian Agora. For informationc ited in such cases I
o e am particularlyi ndebted to the co-operationo f the following: Eva Brann, Peter E. Corbett,V ir-
h
c sginia Grace, G. Roger Edwards, JosephineP latner Harwood,H enry S. Robinson, Lucy Talcott,
u
S Dorothy Burr Thompson,H omer A. Thompson,E ugene Vanderpoola nd Rodney S. Young. No
n alunpublishedd eposit is quoted here that has not been examinedb y one or more of these students;
a n
c othe dates will dependo n pottery for the most part, but terracottaf igurines,s tampedh andlesf rom
ri swine jars, ostrakaa nd coins have also been taken into account.
e r
m e With the exception of ProfessorT hompson'si ntroductorya rticle,8m ost of the Greek lamps
p
A from the Agorah itherto publishedh ave been presentedi n their contexts as parts of dated groups.
r
oSome of these lamps are republishedh ere;f or these, the priorr eferencesa re given in the catalogue.
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Many others, however,h ave not been republished;f or the types of these lamps, undert he present
classification,t he readeri s referredt o the Concordancew here are listed all the lamps which have
provided the basis for this study.
LAMP-MAKERS
In studying the Greek lamps from the Agora one gains the impressiont hat the lamp-maker
was often so familiarw ith contemporaryv ases that he must have been producingt hem. Indeed
2 By relating the deposit numbers to their grid-squares on the plan, the reader can orient himself and can note
for instance that certain areas of the market square of classical times had been settled in earlier eras as residential
neighborhoods, or that the lower north slopes of the Areopagus were favorite sections for dwellings throughout classical
antiquity.
s Hesperia, II, 1933, pp. 195-215.