Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 20. Mold-made. Flat, lentoid shape, with impressed decoration. Large, central filling hole, surrounded by a circular groove, then by a star pattern of nine lunettes; within lunettes, small, impressed circles with raised dots (three lunettes containing a single circle, two containing two circles, and three containing three circles); towards the edge of top, a stylized chevron pattern comprising a central circular groove, flanked by small, impressed dots; the pattern is indistinct around the front half of the lamp to either side of the wick hole. On the bottom, at center a plain, flat base, surrounded by two circular grooves flanking a row of impressed dots; and, at front and back, two projecting sets of two impressed lines, each containing a row of small, impressed dots. 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