Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

Marina, presumably from the mid-1st or
second half of the 1st century AD.
Quite likely an import, possibly from
Italy, is a mouldmade lamp of which only
a fragment of the discus has been preserved
(E 365). The fabric is a very fine light
brown, covered with a glossy, dark red to
brown and even black slip. The relief
representation is that of Jupiter and eagle
of a type frequently encountered in lamp
catalogues.6-* It is a typical full-face bust of
the god with the eagle in front, standing
on a thunderbolt, with wings spread and
looking to left. This discus scene appears to
have enjoyed its floruit starting from the
mid-1st century and continuing into the
first quarter of the 2nd century.
The later 1st and early 2nd centuries
saw the rise of the big single and double-
nozzled lamps with handle attachments.
Such handles bearing moulded relief
representations are present in our as-
semblage: a large acanthus leaf (E 367;
fine grayish-brown fabric with a very dark
gray slip) and a leaf (E 3950; reddish-
yellow with peeling red slip). Close paral-
lels to the first are known from, among
others, Libya7) (second half of the 2nd
century) and Benghazi where a Cnidian
import was discovered in one of the
tombs.8) Another triangular handle at-
tachment (E 3950; reddish yellow fabric
with peeling red slip) represents a typical
leaf with concentric target pattern in relief

at the top. The study material from the
Greco-Roman Museum includes one
vulvate handle (fine light brown fabric
with a matt self-slip), typically dated to
the first half of the 1st century.9) Finally,
there is an oversize nozzle (E 3948; red-
dish-brown fabric with light red slip)
with tightly scrolled volutes in relief and
a thyrsus or rather thunderbolt motif
between the volute terminations10) and
another nozzle of the same type and size
(reddish-brown slip) but without the
thunderbolt.
Lamp E 244, illustrated here as it may
have looked with its three nozzles (Fig. 2),
is an unusual example.u) The third nozzle
was placed opposite the other two and on
the same axis, where normally the handle
of a dilychnoi lamp would have been
positioned. The handle, a triangular at-
tachment, rises on one side and is
decorated with a simplified palmette (?)
above a Dionysiac(?) face crowned with
a wreath of ivy leaves. Otherwise, the lamp
is undecorated except for a series of
concentric mouldings on the deep discus
and on the base, in resemblance of bronze
lamps. The fabric of this exceptional lamp
is a fine, compact gray-black with no
visible inclusions, the slip a semi-matt
black. The preserved dimensions are
13-8 cm in width and 16 cm in length; the
height including the handle attachment
reaches 9-15 cm.

6) See discussion of the motif in D.M. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, ii. Roman Lamps Made in
Italy (British Museum Publications: London 1980), 8-9; A. Leibundgut, Die romischen Lampen in der Schweiz (Bern 1977),
cat. nos. 390, 392.
7) Bailey iii, op. cit., Q 1855.
8) Ibid., Q 2688.
9) I.a. Bailey ii, op. cit., p. 213; Leibundgut, op. cit., cat. no. 268 from Vindonissa.
10) Cf. e.g. Bailey iii, op. cit., Q 2686, dated AD 80-120; Bussiere, op. cit., type BII2 (=Loeschcke III).
11) I have noted so far only one parallel, but very close at that (fabric included), a lamp with three nozzles and broken off
handle of 1st century AD date, said to come from Alexandria, cf. E.-M. Cahn-Klaiber, Die antiken Tonlampen des
Archaologischen Instituts der Universitat Tubingen (Tubingen 1977), cat. no. 194, pp. 70, 179-

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