Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 20. Mold-made, with flat lentoid shape. Discus: stylized palm tree with circles flanking trunk at bottom, surrounded by a narrow band of short impressed lines. A single central filling hole; wick hole in front edge of shoulder. On underside, a central circular pattern and bands running off to edge at front and back. Intact. Encrustation obscuring part of impressed design. The impressed decoration in the form of a stylized date-palm tree is unusual.

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