BIBLICAL HOUSEHOLD LAMPS

(Information from the Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

The oil lamp served as the main means of lighting in the Mediterranean countries throughout antiquity and up to the modern era. The small, portable vessel was convenient and more practical than the torch and olive oil was abundant. In cold climates, with less developed oil industries, candles rather than oil lamps were the norm.

The simplest and commonest lamp was made of clay and decorated in the style of its period and place. There were also, of course, lamps on a grander scale made of various metals, glass or stone.

The pottery oil lamp is one of the most common finds in excavations unearthed in dwellings, temples and tombs. A symbol of light, it may have been placed in burials as an offering or constituted as ceremonial objects in the rituals of some temples. Excavations of such places often yields lamps by the thousands.

The Eretz-Israel lamp (the name given to the type of lamp which the ancient Israelites created for themselves instead of borrowing its style from their neighbors) is characterized by several features which persisted throughout its existence. It is generally made of a thin, light-colored clay, lacking burnish, slip or glazing. Its form is simple and it always has a very large filling hole. The outstanding quality of the Eretz-Israel group is probably its diversity. The fashion, needs and taste of the population changed frequently and dictated a great variety of patterns and symbols. This richness of decoration is often the main, if not the only, source of information we have about the folk art of a given period. It is an aid in understanding the prevailing artistic and cultural influences and at times is also very helpful in assessing the general population and economic structure of different regions of the country.

Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem, wrote thus:

"The ancient oil-lamp, a rather small object, has significance far beyond its size. It not only lit the house of ancient man but it gave him security and trust in the face of the unknown. This simple object bears untold historical value and gives one a feeling of intimacy with millennia past. The shape of the oil-lamp, its symbols and its design, were continuously changing and this it plays a particularly vital role for both the collector and the researcher" (in Oil Lamps from Eretz Israel, p.6).

Yael Israel and Uri Avida in Oil-lamps from Eretz Israel. The Louis and Carmen Warschaw Collection at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1988) wrote on p.9:

The oil-lamp, the light carrier of antiquity, though small and simple in design, was an extremely practical and important object. Light has always been a symbol of the human soul, of life, and goodness, as opposed to darkness and evil. The uses of the oil-lamp were thus of double significance - secular and practical on the one hand, and mystical and ritual on the other. Lamps served man in burial and other rites: the profusion of oil-lamps which have been discovered in tombs indicates that they not only provided illumination for those digging the caves and tombs, and for the people coming to bury their dead, but also had a symbolic function, as a means of lighting the way for the deceased and as a link between the living and the dead.

IMAGES	ACCESSION NO.  /SERIAL NO.	DESCRIPTION - FROM THE OLDEST  TO THE EARLIEST
	C3 / A	This lamp is from the Chalcolithic period. It was a later addition to this addition. It is heavy suggesting that weights were added to the clay. It is raised and has 4 columns to hold the oil and the wicks.
	C4 / 1	This lamp is one of the earliest found in Palestine. It is about 4,000 years old. ...
	C5 / 2	This lamp come from Abraham's time and is about 3,800 years old. ...
	C6 / 3	This lamp came from the period of when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness of Sinai. ...
	C7 / 4	This lamp comes from the time of King David, about 3,000 years ago. ...
	C8 / 5	This lamp was used from the time of Solomon until the capture of Judah by the Babylonians. ...
	C9 / 6	This lamp is from the time of Ezra the Scribe during the period when Judah was a Persian State and is about 2,400 years old. ...
	C10 / 7	This lamp is from the period between the Old Testament and New Testament ...
	C11 / 8	A Hasmonean lamp found in the late Hellenistic Period, about 2,100 years old. ...
	C12 / 9	This is an early Roman oil-lamp and is about 2,040 years old. ...
	C13 / 10	This is a transitional lamp-type between the early Roman oil-lamp and the Roman oil-lamp of Eretz Israel (in the fourth and fifth century AD). ...
	C14 / 11	This is another kind of the transitional lamp, about 2,000 years old. ...
	C15 / 12	This is a "Herodian" oil lamp, about 2,000 years old. ...
	C16 / 13	Another Herodian lamp, about 2,000 years old, with the same features, but in red-burnished and slightly smaller in size.
	C17 / 14	A Herodian lamp, about 2,000 years old. ...
	C18 / 15	This is a late Roman lamp, about 1,800 years old. ...
	C19 / 16	Another late Roman lamp, heavily enrusted, but showing the same sinuous shape. ...