OIL LAMP     
Portus Ilicitanus (Santa Pola, Alicante)

Mould made pottery
h: 2.8 cm; l: 11.8 cm; w: 8.4 cm
Roman
1st century AD

 

Oil lamp (lucerna) with the margo (rim) separated from the discus by a narrow strip of decorative moulding. The lamp has long volutes and a triangular tipped nozzle. The discus is decorated, on the left hand side with an old bearded shepherd, leaning slightly forwards and supported by a cane. He is dressed in a short tunic, with an animal skin knotted at the neck, covering his back. To the right of the man is a flock of goats and sheep grazing, and two of them are trying to reach the leaves of a tree, where there is a bird watching over a nest with young.
The lamp comes from the Campanian workshop of ROMANENSIS and corresponds to the type Bailey IA.

The decorative theme is evidence for the popularity of idyllic and pastoral scenes of an Alexandrian influence during the period of the Julio-Claudian Emperors. This was also reflected by the popularity of literary shepherd characters such as Tityrus from Virgil’s Bucolics and Faustulus, from the myth of the foundation of Rome.
C.S.: 4802
BAILEY, D.M., 1980.
CARRETERO VAQUERO, S., 1989
Unpublished.