Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 18. Mold-made, with unpierced handle. Discus: undecorated circle, with central filling hole and bordered by a raised line and groove that extend forward, enclosing the wick hole. Convex-curving shoulder: pattern of raised globules. Raised base ring, flanked by circular grooves, and small, pushed-in base, possibly impressed with a footprint stamp. V-shaped pattern of lines and grooves between base and back of handle; two bands of two parallel grooves flanking underside of nozzle, and a row of three impressed dots on spine of nozzle. Intact.

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