Two Things Tuesday: On Roman Lamps

My interest in Roman lamps has not grown over the last few years where I’ve been studying them (albeit in a rather desultory way). As readers of this blog know, we have a lamp deposit from Polis and have been working to say something about this odd little assemblage of lamps. The most unusual thing about it is that excavators discovered these lamps nestled amid the Late Roman leveling fill for the so-called South Basilica. The lamps themselves are relatively well preserved and several derive from the same mold. The types are well-known on Cyprus and appear — as far as we can tell — to be in Cypriot fabric. There is every reason to assume that these lamps were manufactured on this island and most likely at Polis. There are two interrelated aspects of publishing these lamps that makes it more of a challenge (beyond lamps being inherently boring). Thing the First In the spring of 2013, someone broke into the Polis storerooms and among the rather unusual collection of things they stole…