Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wheel-made, with applied large loop handle and large misshaped nozzle. Plain, concave discus, with irregular central filling hole and surrounded by a narrow raised circle and groove. Angular, carinated body, and nozzle with pointed sides around the large wick hole; handle with central groove and applied double cross bar at top. Raised base ring, and flat base. Intact. Handle crudely applied and nozzle carelessly made.

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