A ROMAN TERRACOTTA OIL LAMP WITH A MENORAH CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A ROMAN TERRACOTTA OIL LAMP WITH A MENORAH, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D. Of ovoid form, the small mould-made lamp with a broad shoulder tapering to a short projecting nozzle, the body pierced by a central filling hole flanked by a smaller air hole and, at the opposite end, a wick hole set within the nozzle. The upper surface is decorated in low relief with a seven-branched menorah, the arms rising symmetrically from a central shaft, now softened by wear but still legible against the coarse buff fabric. The clay is pale ochre in tone, with earthen encrustations across the surface consistent with long burial. The menorah is among the most immediately recognisable symbols of Second Temple and post-Temple Jewish devotional life. As the seven-branched lampstand that stood within the sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem, its image acquired particular resonance after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, when it became one of the principal visual markers of Jewish identity across the diaspora. Its appearance on a small domestic oil lamp signals that the object was made for a Jewish household or for sale within a Jewish community, and its function was likely both practical and devotional, providing light and at the same time carrying the memory of the Temple lampstand into everyday use. Terracotta lamps of this general form were produced in vast numbers across the Roman East in the first and second centuries A.D., pressed in two-part moulds and fired in simple kilns. The fabric is ordinary, the technique quick, and the object cheap; what distinguishes the present piece is the decision to place the menorah on the discus. Jewish-symbol lamps of this kind are known from workshops in Judaea and neighbouring regions, and were traded within the wider network of Roman lamp production without ever losing their specifically Jewish audience. The wear on the shoulder and the darkening at the nozzle indicate that this lamp was used rather than deposited unlit. This lamp exemplifies the domestic transmission of Jewish devotional imagery in the early Roman period, when the menorah passed from Temple furnishing into portable, private, and everyday use. It belongs to the modest end of the tradition, unglazed and quickly moulded, but it is precisely on such humble objects that the visual vocabulary of post-Temple Judaism was carried into the homes of ordinary worshippers. Dimensions: Length: 6.2cm

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