Ancient Roman Oil Lamp

Hey dear community, as the first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you have made some interesting experiences! In this article, I would like to discuss a historical topic and hope you can expand your knowledge a little.

You can see here old Roman oil lamps that I was able to photograph recently and all three were made of terracotta and are decorated with different motifs and in ancient times these light sources were very popular and widely used. Most were probably made in ancient Rome, which had focused on producing them in large quantities and on the motifs mainly historical or mythological events could be seen and the advantage was that they were very easy to use and also burned for a long time and had a high luminosity. With the change of time, the motifs also changed and it came to the fact that it was often decorated with religious themes and also logos or writings were often depicted and there are these oil lamps in different shapes and the round which can also be seen in my pictures was the most common. Clay or terracotta were the most popular for the production but also metal was sometimes used and they were beautifully decorated with different patterns and the functionality is always relatively similar and olive oil was filled into the hole which was abundant in the Mediterranean and there were no supply bottlenecks with this fuel. After the oil was filled, a wick was lit at the front of the lamp and there were usually also ventilation holes and depending on the strength of the wick and the filling, the burning time also varied and in the Roman Empire they could be found in most households and were traded at affordable prices and it can be said that it was one of the most important items.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about history! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.