Christian Lamp with Bust of a Saint (?)

Place of OriginLikely Tunisia, possibly El Jem

Dateabout 420-550 CE

Dimensions2 × 2 3/4 × 5 in. (5.1 × 7 × 12.7 cm)

MediumEarthenware (North African Red Slip Ware), molded, slip-decorated, and fired

ClassificationUtilitarian Objects

Credit LineGift of Ruth Cordes Cantwell in memory of her father, George Cordes

Object number

2009.292

Not on View

DescriptionAncient Roman oil lamp with a flat top, rounded discus, broad rim, long nozzle, and a plain stump handle. The rim is mold-decorated with repeating chevron motifs enclosing rounded, possibly vegetal forms. A cross set within a square is molded above the nozzle. The discus features a relief bust of a bearded man in a toga, possibly Saint Peter. The lamp corresponds to Hayes Type IIB, also identified as Broneer Type XXXI and Brants Type XXIX.

Label TextThis lamp was made in North Africa during a time when Christianity was spreading through the Roman Empire. Molded from reddish clay and decorated with slip, it features a cross and the bust of a bearded man, possibly Saint Peter. Oil lamps like this one were commonly used in homes or placed in graves, where they symbolized light in the afterlife. This example belongs to a well-known type of Christian lamp made in Tunisia, often decorated with religious or symbolic imagery.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, October 29, 2010-January 8, 2012.Comparative ReferencesCf. Magness, Jodi. A Typology of the Late Roman and Byzantine Pottery of Jerusalem, Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1989.

. Cf. Knudsen, Sandra E. Romans and Barbarians, exhibition catalogue, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1976, p. 126, cat. 145.

Cf. Hayes, John W. Late Roman Pottery, London, British School at Rome, 1972, “African Lamps,” pp. 310–315, pl. 21a.