Oil lamps as a Roman mass product
Oil lamps in the form of bowl lamps have a history of more than 10,000 years regionally. Two-piece oil lamps made of clay were a mass product in Roman times. Grease, tallow, tar, and oil were used as fuel. The wick was made of plant fibers or cloth scraps and was pushed into the front extension, called the snout. The top of the oil lamps was usually decorated with pictorial motifs from everyday life
Oil - light - sea
Antique oil lamp sea animals suggests in the motif used the proximity to the seafood. Characteristics of this oil lamp are:
- Material: clay
- Size: 15 x 9 cm
- Chronological classification 1st - 2nd century A.D.
- Motifs: sea creatures
- Oil lamp for daily use
- suitable for olive oil
- high quality workmanship due to dense firing
Seafood: an endless market
On the beaches of the Roman Empire, seafood and fish were staple foods of the population. The first fish farms were established, among other things to supply the inland population with fish. Fish was preserved in salt and was served as salt fish throughout the empire. Fresh seafood and fish were an expensive delicacy in the inland because of their rapid perishability.
At that time ....
150 AD on a warm summer evening. Occasional campfires burn on the beach. Fishermen smoke their catch of sea creatures or prepare them for consumption. For the first time Claudius was present today at the catch of sea animals. At the age of 13, he wants to process these impressions and talk to someone. It seems to him that the music from the taberna is louder than usual today. A short time later he enters the tavern and his gaze falls on the beautiful oil lamp with the sea animals. Immediately he sees his experiences of today as if from another world. What could he have experienced?
Think and collect ideas about how a catch of sea creatures in the Mediterranean Sea might have looked like about 2000 years ago. Gather your ideas and share them!
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