242 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In Assjo-ia and Babylonia, however, are found both Roman lamps 

 and lamps which far antedate the invention of the Roman lamp. 

 These are the lamps in form of a foot with open wick gutter and 

 curved nozzle dating to 1500 B. C. Lamps, one with saucer, column, 

 and formed saucer reservoir, much like the Moorish example, is from 

 Nimrud and Konyunjik palaces and is supposed to date from 880-500 

 B. C; the other sets on a pedestal and has a wide-mouth reservoir 

 and spout, comes from the northwest Ninu-ud palace, and is more like 

 the ancient type. These specimens are in the the British Museum. 



The Roman lamp came into general use about 300 B. C. The older 

 forms suggest the long-spouted European crusie with the back support 

 modified into a handle, giving a lamp to be carried in the hand or 

 set. On account of the great number of minor variations in the 

 Roman lamp, series proving any line of development may be laid 

 out. In reality the Roman lamp came into use when social and in- 

 dustrial progress had prepared the way. Pliny is no doubt right in 

 saying that the lamp was not used before because there was not oil, 

 meaning perhaps surplus oil above the food supply. Roman engi- 

 neers by their mechanical genius vastly improved the primitive oil 

 mills, and in consequence the oil supply was greatly increased. 



Roman lamps appear to reflect the work of artisans in metal. Tliis 

 is due to the fact that the lamp models and perhaps molds were made 

 by a class of artists or designers in the minor fine arts called ^^wZ-i 

 sigillatores, who sold them to the lamp makers, ^^ 



The differentiation of designers and manufactuers is seen rather 

 early in the ceramic art, and it follows up in the Bronze Age when 

 molds were made and objects duplicated. 



In the ancient period of Greece, as in earher times elsewhere, 

 fighting was still in the primitive stage and had advanced only to 

 improvements of the torch. Schliemann says: 



"Not to speak of candles, even lamps were totally unknown to 

 Homer, and I never found them either at Troy or at Tiryns or 

 Mycenae in the strata of prehistoric house remains. Nay, lamps 

 appear not to have existed at Tiryns or Mycenae before their capture 

 by the Aryins in 468 B. C, because I only found them in the latter 

 place in the debris of the more modern city, and none were found at 

 Tiryns."'' 



Simple saucer lamps are found in the island of Leros, Greece. They 

 consist of a wheel-thrown earthenware with wick channel formed by 



«' Isaac H. Hall. Lamps and Oil Vessels, Sunday School Times, Apr. 7, 1886, p. 211. 

 '• Henry Schliemann. Mycenae, New York, 1878, p. 50. 



