Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mold-made, with handle. Sunken, flat discus, with a single filling hole at center and a raised circle at edge; band of three raised lines and two grooves around inner edge of shoulder; slanting shoulder decorated with radiating, impressed lines. Volutes flanking angular nozzle with horizontal, plain top. Sunken base, defined by incised base ring. Handle broken off and missing; holes in underside and front right side of nozzle.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art