Details

COLEM:JOS.860

Colchester Collections

lamp, oil lamp

This Roman oil lamp is a copy of an Italian lamp and features the mask of a comic actor. Roman oil lamps are not very common in Britain and were only used in any quantity in Colchester and London. Introduced by the Romans, they were popular in the first century after the conquest, but quickly declined in popularity and were barely used after that. Early on, they were used by people in Britain to demonstrate their grasp of Roman culture and civilisation, as artificial lighting was a new technology. Lamps could be an expensive way to create light as they were generally fuelled by olive oil, which had to be imported from the Mediterranean. At this time, most artificial light was generated by candles made from rendered animal fat called tallow. Tallow was cheap and easily available, so candles were widely used, with many candle sticks having been found from Roman Colchester. These lamps are an example of mass production. Made from moulds, they were produced in large quantities at workshops, including one in Colchester. Excitingly, the underside of this lamp has a maker’s mark: STROBILI. This refers to the workshop of Strobilus in Northern Italy, which was active between AD 67- 100, letting us know when and where this lamp was likely manufactured. The only other sites in Roman Britain with theatrical masks depicted on lamps are London and Verulamium, two cities that, like Colchester, had their own theatres.

Strobili (potter)‎

0075 - 0100

Roman

length: 99.00 mm
width: 67.00 mm
height: 32.00 mm