Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 20. Mold-made. Broad, 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 four containing three circles); two more circular grooves towards edge of top, bordering a band of small, impressed circles with raised dots; the outer groove broken at front by the wick hole. On the bottom, at center three small, impressed circles with raised dots surrounded by a circular groove; another circular band of small, impressed circles with raised dots within a circular groove; and, at front and back, two parallel linear grooves flanked by small, impressed circles with raised 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