Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 20. Mold-made. Shallow, lentoid shape, with impressed decoration. Large, oval central filling hole, surrounded by a circular groove and broad band containing eight impressed circles with raised rings; towards the edge, a narrow band of impressed dots flanked on either side by a circular groove. The wick hole is placed outside the decorated area. On the uneven base, a disk pattern, poorly executed, comprising a central impressed triangle surrounded by dots, a circular groove, and another band of dots, with an impressed lines flanked by dots extending to front and back. 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