Cypriot Bronze Lampstands In The Cesnola Collection Of The Stanford University Museum Of Art

The fourth catalogue in a series that documents the renowned Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art, this book focuses on the collection’s 453 terracotta oil lamps dating from the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine periods. The rich iconography on many of these common, everyday objects provides a rare look into daily life on Cyprus in antiquity and highlights the island’s participation in Roman artistic and cultural production. Each lamp is illustrated, and the accompanying text addresses typology, decoration, and makers’ marks on each of these objects that provide new insights into art, craft, and trade in the ancient Mediterranean.

The collection in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum illustrates the range of bronze lamp production in the Eastern Mediterranean from the Archaic to the Late Roman world. The collection is particularly rich in lamps from the Early Christian period and also includes polycandela for glass lamps. Although provenance is often lacking, the Istanbul lamps nevertheless offer a useful and interesting body of material for the student of lighting technology in the ancient world. The present catalogue lists metal lamps, lampstands, polycandela, lanterns, suspension chains, and lamplids which have entered the museum's collection up to the end of 1998. Only a few examples of the collection are published.