lamp

Receptacle for a source of artificial light. Stone Age peoples appear to have discovered that a wick soaked in and fed by fat or oil would provide a lasting light and, using a hollowed-out stone to hold the light source, created the first lamp. From the use of natural objects - stones and seashells - the production and design of the lamp developed alongside advances in technology to include the use of metals, stone, pottery, and glass.

In early lamps, the light was fuelled by a variety of oils such as rapeseed and olive oil, as well as the waxes and animal fats, such as tallow, used in candles. Kerosene or paraffin oil was used from the mid-19th century to produce a steadier, brighter, and cleaner flame. A major advance on the simple wick, floating or supported in its fuel, was the 18th-century introduction of a central burner in an enclosed container within the lamp, the flame being controlled by a ratchet.

Prehistoric stone lamps The first lamps are crude and difficult to identify, but a bowl-shaped example found at Istaritz in the Lower Pyrenees dates from approximately 20,000 BC. A stone lamp of about 12,000 BC (the Magdalenian period), found in southern France, has a definite spout and the head of an ibex engraved on the base. It is now in the museum of St-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. In Britain, chalk lamps from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) flint mines near Cissbury, Sussex, date from about 2000 BC. Early stone lamps from the advanced Minoan civilization of Crete (approximately 2500-1400 BC) exhibit a distinctive technique. They are large, shallow, decorated bowls set on pedestals; a red gypsum example over 60 cm/24 in high is in the British Museum, London.

Prehistoric seashell lamps In the Middle East the lamp had an independent origin in the seashell. Conch shells used as lamps have been discovered at the ancient city of Ur in Sumeria (now part of Iraq), dating from about 5000 BC. The seashell design was transposed into more durable materials, and by 3000 BC lamps found at Ur were carved in alabaster to resemble conch shells.

Prehistoric metal lamps The earliest metal lamps were also found at Ur, dating around 3000 BC, in various styles including the shell form. A bronze lamp shaped like a crocodile foreshadows the late Roman use of animal designs. Copper lamps, dating from approximately 2700 BC and shaped like a kind of shell, were found beneath a Sargonid palace at Eshnunna (now Tell Asmar) in Mesopotamia. Chinese bronze examples of the late Zhou dynasty (4th century BC) are saucer- or box-shaped, and may have short legs.

Prehistoric pottery lamps Early examples of pottery lamps from the 3rd millennium BC, discovered at Tell Duweir, Palestine, are unusual because they are made of finer pottery than later shell-shaped styles. They are almost square with four spouts for wicks and flat bases. The later examples are usually modelled on the scallop shell, with a rounded base. Phoenician pottery lamps of the mid-2nd millennium BC and those of the Canaanite period in Palestine (2nd millennium BC) are also shell forms. In Palestine, from the time of Solomon (10th century BC), the shell-shape developed into a deeper bowl with a flat base and nozzle for the wick. Early Egyptian lamps have not been identified, but they may have been simple open saucers of sun-baked clay, unrecognizable as lamps today. Minoan pottery designs include open saucer lamps with a lip, spout, or separate nozzle, and the earliest known lamps with handles.

Classical period The Greek lamp appeared in the 7th century BC, when it replaced torches or braziers, and began as an open saucer. After the 6th century BC it was thrown on a potter's wheel, the rim curved inwards to prevent spilling. A handle was added, the nozzle was bridged, and eventually the form became totally enclosed, as in late Greek and Roman lamps. During the 6th to 4th centuries BC, these lamps were mostly glazed on the outside, but from the 3rd century BC this was replaced with a coating of slip. In the 2nd century BC the method of production changed to moulding, and by the following century makers' names began to appear, though this is mainly a feature of the Roman period. The Roman pottery lamp derives from the Greek, though it developed distinctive features such as a concave top and moulded ornamentation. Although some bronze lamps of the Hellenic period have been found, metal lamps are rare until the Roman era, especially from the 1st century AD, when the use of a variety of metal forms, such as animals, fishes, and figures, became common.

Post-Roman period Lamps of the early Christian and early Byzantine eras, 4th-7th centuries, are frequently decorated with Christian symbols and emblems. Another Byzantine pottery style, appearing about the 8th century, seems to derive from earlier Assyrian (722-626 BC) and Parthian (200 BC-AD 200) forms. It looks similar to a small teapot, with a globular body and a nozzle or spout close to the base on one side. This type continues in early medieval Arab lamps, with a blue or green glaze.

Glass lamps Examples of glass lamps of the 4th and 5th centuries AD found in the Fayum, Egypt, are among the earliest found in this medium. They have a floating wick and were developed into a pendant chandelier form as early as the 6th century. The glass lamp spread through the Byzantine world to the east, where it has been found at Syrian church sites, and to the west, where it was used by the early Christian church as a ‘sanctuary lamp’ in front of the sacrament. Medieval manuscript illuminations of the 11th-14th centuries depict the same type of glass lamps. The oil commonly used was rapeseed. In the Renaissance the metal pendant holders of glass lamps reached a height of elaborate ornamentation. From the 18th century, lamps had a central burner and a glass chimney.