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Well,
I have seen thousands of sherds of roman lamps (Lucernae) and i do'nt have any problem to think that one is real.
The buff colour is not uncommon. Many produccions of lamps of Nord Africa (specially Tunisia and Algery) are made in that colour, indeed of the orange colour of the Roman Red Slip Wares of that region.
I think depicts a chariot pulled by two dogs. Can be a kind of toy chariot for a child. I remeber a mosaic with a depiction of a chariot pulled by two gooses and drived by a child.
The blackening produced by the firing is very common, principally in the upper part. Many times produces the breking in that zone.
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Hello,
This is an old thread and the images have been removed? At any rate, I cannot see them.
Soot deposits on the nozzle prove nothing one way or the other. However, I would make a couple of points:
Roman North Africa (Africa Proconsularis) was one of the major producers of lamps during the Imperial period, exporting them to many parts of the empire. They made a vast range, in different clays, quality, styles, etc.
1) Some lamps were finely made; others were really quite crude and poorly executed.
2) Clay varied quite a lot. Beige (or buff) is not at all unusual for some types of North African lamp. Indeed, on some types I would be worried if it were not that colour.
There is a very small selection of North African lamps at the bottom of this page (from my own collection):
[url:elxu78lh]http://www.romulus2.com/lamps/lampcat/lampcat3.shtml[/url]
I would be very interested to see the images.
David
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Here is my "roman lamp" again. I got it as a gift some 20 years ago and it was supposedly found from north africa...
Virilis / Jyrki Halme
PHILODOX
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![[Image: fectio.png]](http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd270/sattuviitana/fectio.png)
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Thank you, Virilis. Now I can see the lamp!
From your images there is no reason to doubt that your lamp is genuinely ancient. The style, fabric, colour, patination and details are consistent with genuine lamps of its type.
It is typical of North African lamps of the late 2nd to the first half or so of the 3rd century AD (say, 175 - 260 AD). The scene is fairly common on these lamps and depicts a deity (very probably Diana) in a chariot pulled by a pair of gryphons.
I have put an image of a clearer example of the type together with yours here:
[url:33nw8yby]http://www.romulus2.com/diana/[/url]
As I said, lamps were made in different grades of quality, and the clay and slip also varied. They were not made by just one maker; there were many lamp workshops in the region. Also bear in mind that the final colour was affected by kiln methods and temperatures. All these factors varied not only from maker to maker but even within the same workshop over a period of time.
The first lamp is clearly from a fresh mould. Your own lamp is from a worn or later generation mould and somewhat more careless in execution (e.g. an oversized wick-hole) - but not necessarily much later in date.
The fabric of both lamps is typical of the range in North African lamps of this period. The two filling-holes on yours and the single filling-hole on the first one are both common configuratons on this type.
There is indeed a huge number of fake lamps around but there is a danger of 'throwing out the baby with the bath water'. A common limitation of handling only museum objects is that the finest examples of a type become the norm and anything more mundane (or clumsy) stands in danger of being rejected as fake simply because it is unfamiliar.
David
![[Image: fectio.png]](http://s226.photobucket.com/user/sattuviitana/media/fectio.png.html)
!