The Biblical Archaeologist - Vol.27, N.4

24 Pages·1964·2.18 MB·English

by  American Schools of Oriental Research

The
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST
?or~
Published by
THE AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
Jerusalem and Bagdad
Drawer 93-A, Yale Station, New Haven, Conn.
Vol. XXVII December,1 964 No. 4
The Household of Palestine in
Lamps
Intertestamental Times
(Second in a three-parste ries*)
ROBERT HOUSTON SMITH
The College of Wooster
The period between the Old and New Testamentsi s largelyxth at of
the HellenisitcA ge in Palestinianh istory,w hich beganw hen Alexandert he
Great marchedi nto Palestinei n 332 B.C. and ended approximatelwy hen
Herod the Great,a consciousp urveyoro f Romanc ulture,c ame to power in
37 B.C.xD uringt his time Palestinew as ruled firstb y Alexander( 332-323),
then by Alexander'ss uccessorst he Ptolemieso f Egypt (323-198) and the
Seleucids of Syria (198-165), and finally by Hasmoneank ings (165-37).
Throughoutt his period householdl amps underwenta rapid and complex
developmenwt hich was relatedt o the broaderc ulturalh istoryo f the period.
*The first article, "The Household Lamps of Palestine in Old Testament Times," appeared in
the BA, XXVII (1964), pp. 1-31. Note two correctionst o the text of that article: p. 27, line 22,
read "Figure 12" instead of "Figure 11"; p. 30, line 4, read "Figure 18" instead of "Figure
17." Unless otherwisen oted, each illustrationi n the present articleh as been reducedt o one-thirdo f
the size of the original object. For technical reasons line-drawingst aken from previous publica-
tions have been redrawn;t his occasion for redrawingh as been utilized to introduce a moderately
unified formatf or the line-drawings.
1. \any scholars prefer to date the end of the Hellenistic period to 63 or 50 B.C.
102 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVII,
The Biblical Archaeologist is published quarterly (February, May, September, December)
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non-technical, yet thoroughly reliable account of archaeological discoveries as they relate to the
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Copyright by American Schools of Oriental Research, 1964.
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Fig. 1. Wheelmade lamp of ca. the end of the 4th century B.C., from Megiddo. Photograph
courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; drawing from R. S. Lamon
and G. M. Shipton, Megiddo I, pl. XXXVII, no. 2, modified, used courtesy of the Oriental
Institute.
The Earliest Hellenistic Lamps
Prepared by several centuries of increasing contact with the western
world, the people of the eastern Mediterraneanl ands entered the Hellenistic
era easily. The large amount of imports from the west during the last cen-
turies of the Iron Age shows that many of these people had already recog-
nized the technical and aesthetic superiority of Greek pottery; all that re-
mained was for them to adopt Greek ceramic styles in their own manufac-
ture of pottery. This final stage came as local potters began to cater to the
interests of soldiers and merchants left in the wake of Alexander the Great,
spurred on by an ever-growing popular demand for Greek wares. By this
time the quality of the lamps of Greece had begun to decline, with the re-
sult that local manufacturers were able to compete successfully for the
eastern Mediterranean market. The lamps which they produced were truly
international in style, so much so that it is sometimes impossible to deter-
4, 1964) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 103
mine the place of origin of a lamp solely on the basis of its appearance.S ome
lamps manufactured in places such as Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in
Syria may have found their way into Palestine, but there also must have
been a Palestinian industry which produced lamps in this international
style. Thanks to archaeometric techniques of pottery analysis which are
currently being developed, we may look forward to the time when the ex-
act place of manufacture of almost any lamp can be determined; then it
will be possible to reconstruct in considerable detail the history of inter-
national trade during early Hellenistic times.
Fig. 2. Wheelmade lamp of ca. first half of 3rd century B.C., from Atlit. From Quarterly of the
Department of Antiquities of Palestine, II (1932), pl. XXXVI, no. 1002 and fig. 92.
Along with the rest of their culture the Greek soldiers and merchants
brought their language, which already included a large stock of terms deal-
ing with lamps. As Greek increasingly became the language of culture,
commerce and government, some of these terms came into use in Palestine
alongside the older Hebrew and Aramaic words; a household lamp, for ex-
ample, became a lychnos and its nozzle a myktcr or myxa. Sometimes Greek-
speaking Palestinians retained their old terminology in new wrappings, as
when they referred to a lampwick not by the common Greek words lych-
nitis and ellychnion but by the term linon, "flax"o r "linen," a direct trans-
lation of the Hebrew pishtah; such a designation would have been un-
usual in Greece, where wicks were not ordinarily made of flax but of
plantain (thryallis).2
Palestinian lamps from the beginning of the Hellenistic period are not
numerous, perhaps in part because the population of the country had not
yet fully recovered numerical and economic strength following the depletion
which had occurred during the Persian period; such evidence as there is,
however, shows that lamp development took a course similar to that else-
2. H. B. Walters, A History of Ancient Pottery, vol. II, p. 395. Other substances were sometimes
used, such as the phlomos (mullein). Flax wicks were used on certain occasions. The earliest use of
the term linon in Jewish literature is that in the Septuagint, e.g., Isa. 42:3, a passage which
Matt. 12:20 quotes.
104 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVII,
where in the Hellenistic world. Typical of late 4th century B.C. lamps,
except for the optional( and rare) handle,i s the wheelmades pecimenf rom
Megiddos hown in Figure 1.3 Of thick brown-ochrcel ay, the lamp is very
well made, as lamps of its time generallyw ere. The potterf irst turnedt he
bowl of the lamp on his wheel, then, when the clay had partlyd ried,a dded
the nozzlea nd handlew hich he had previouslyfa shioned.F inallyh e applied
a dull black or browns lip of high-gradec lay in an attemptt o imitateb lack
Greekg laze,a nd firedt he lampu ntil it was quiteh ard.
Somewhatl ater in date, possiblyf rom the first half of the 3rd century
B.C., is the wheelmades pecimens hown in Figure2 , which still retainst he
heavyc oatingo f lime which it acquiredw hile lying for centuriesi n a tomb.
Lampso f this kind ordinarilyr angef romr eddishw are (as in this specimen)
to light brown, alwaysh eavy and fine-texturedT. he thick, inward-sloping
(or, in other specimens,a lmostv ertical) walls of the oil reservoirg ive the
lamp considerables tability.L ike lamps of the precedingk ind, such lamps
ordinarilyh ad a browno r blacks lip which imitatedG reekg laze.
Qo
SR
Fig. 3. Wheelmade votive lamp, probably ca. middle of 3rd century B.C., from Samaria. From
G Reisner, Samaria, fig. 189, no. II 3a.
These lamps were intended for everyday use, but not all lamps were.
The little lamp of reddish ware with a red wash, found at Samaria (Fig. 3),
clearly had some special function. The lower portion is unfortunately miss-
ing; the excavatorss uggest that the lamp may have been attached to a hollow
ceramic ring, but analogies from elsewhere in the Mediterranean world sug-
gest that it originally had a columnar base.4 It will be noted that the oil
reservoir opens directly into the column. The lamp could be used only so
long as the fuel level was high and oil could easily flow up the wick by
capillary action, and thus was not suitable for everyday use. The lamp is
3. The drawing of this lamp in R. S. Lamon and G. M. Shipton, Megiddo I, pl. 37, no. 2, is in-
accurate; cf. R. H. Howland, The Athenian Agora IV: Greek Lamps and Their Survivals, nos.
264, 269 and 285.
4. Cf. Howland, Greek Lamps, nos. 443-444, 611-612; 0. Broneer, Corinth IV2: Terracotta Lamps,
p. 49 (fig. 24); D. Ivdnyi, Die Pannonischen Lampen, pl. LXVII, no. 8.
4, 1964) THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST 105
almost surely a votive one, intended not so much to be lit as to contain a
fixed amount of oil as an offering.5 One is reminded of a lamp from Athens,
found many years ago, on which had been inscribed the words ME APTOU,
"Do not light"; perhaps it, too, was a votive lamp.6 So far as we know, the
user of the Samarian lamp was not a Jew but a pagan. He may have taken
his votive lamp to the temple, but it is also possible that he dedicated it to
a household shrine.
About the middle of the 3rd century B.C. a somewhat different kind
of lamp appeared in Palestine, the so-called "pocket watch" type (Fig. 4).
More strongly eastern-Hellenistic than its predecessors, it is especially dis-
tinguished by its sharply angular oil reservoir. The walls of the lamp are
thinner and often buff-colored, and are regularly covered with a rich red or
brown slip. This kind of lamp seems to have been most popular in northern
es
Fig. 4. Wheelmade lamps of ca. last half of 3rd century B.C. Left: specimen from Samaria. From
J. W. Crowfoot, et al., Samaria-Sebaste 111, fig. 85, no. 6, used by permission of the
Palestine Exploration Fund. Right: specimen in a private collection.
Palestine. Some specimens may have been imported from Syria, where the
lamp was enjoying considerable popularity at this time; thus we see the old
tendency of Samariat o have cultural ties with the north.
An interesting feature of lamps in this style, and some earlier and later
ones as well, is the little pierced knob on the shoulder (usually, but not
always, on the right side as one holds the lamp with the nozzle facing out-
ward). This lug may have been an invention of the lampmakerso f Athens.
In its earliest form it curves outward like a dolphin's fin, a fact which
prompted late 19th century scholars to dub lamps with such lugs "delphini-
form"; archaeologistss till use the term occasionally, not only for specimens
5. Even in modern times the people of Palestine who bring votive lamps to shrines stress the oil
as their offering, not the lamp itself; cf. T. Canaan, Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, VI
(1926), pp. 20-22.
6. The lamp and its inscription are mentioned by Walters, Ancient Pottery, vol. I, p. 107. For
some inexplicable reason Walters translates the inscription literally as "Do not touch." In Greek
idiom, to "touch" a lamp was to light it. Votive lamps of gold and silver, obviously not intended
for use, are mentioned in lists of temple vessels in Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1449, from the early 3rd
century A.D.; one lamp seems to be of silver-plated wood.
7. Howland, Greek Lamps, p. 167.
106 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVII,
in which the fin is prominent but also for those later ones in which it is
vestigial. The function of the lug has never been conclusively determined.
Some investigators have suggested that potters made the projection to hold
a needle with which the wick could be pulled forward as it burned. Others
have thought that it provided a means of attaching a string so that the lamp
could be hung on the wall when it was not in use.8 Perhaps the most satis-
factory procedure is to combine some elements of both of these ideas and
suggest that the lug originally was a device for tethering a wick-adjuster to
the lamp by means of a string. In any case, the wick-adjuster cannot have
been more than a twig or splinter, for although iron and bronze pins are
known to have been attached to certain finer lamps-usually of bronze-in
the Roman period and presumably in the Hellenistic as well, there is no
archaeologicale vidence that they were attached to ordinary terracottal amps.
'0SD
Fig. 5. Wheelmade lamps of ca. 3rd century B.C. Left: specimen from Beth Zur. From O. R.
Sellers, The Citadel of Beth-Zur, fig. 42 (exact size of lamp unknown). Right: specimen
from Tell en-Nasbeh. Photograph and drawing courtesy of the Palestine Institute of the
Pacific School of Religion.
Along with the lamps of international design which we have been dis-
cussing we find some plainly local lamps, particularlyi n central and southern
Palestine. The two wheelmade specimens9 in Figure 5 probably both date
from the 3rd century B.C.10T he most notable feature is the sharply pointed
nozzle on each specimen. The rim around the filling-hole varies consider-
ably, sometimes being high and flaring and sometimes consisting only of an
incurving of the bowl of the lamp. Lamps of this kind are generally poorly
made of coarse, drab buff to soft red-orangec lay, and are sometimes covered
with a thick slip of only slightly better clay. The Palestinian potters who
made such lamps were apparently willing to go along with Hellenistic styles
8. Howland, Greek Lamps, pp. 72, 131, 153, refers to earlier discussions of this question and decides
in favor of suspension as the original purpose of the lug; he goes on to suggest that the lug must
soon have been discovered to be useful as a holder for the wick-adjuster.
9. The lamp from Beth Zur shown in Fig. 5 is not molded as the excavator states that it is.
10. Of the same family, and almost surely of similar date, is the lamp found in a tomb at Beth
Shemesh (E. Grant and G. E. Wright, Ain Shems Excavations IV, pl. XLVIII, no. 10), which
(contrary to Wright's opinion in Ain Shems Excavations V, p. 145) is neither Mesopotamian in
origin nor from the Persian period. Cf. the lamps in Tomb 103 at Gezer (R. A. S. Macalister,
The Excavation of Gezer III, pl. XCVII, nos. 1-5).
4, 1964) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 107
of lamp-making, but not concerned enough to imitate any one lamp closely
or to try to achieve any aesthetic effect.
Of larger, finer Palestinian lamps during the 3rd century B.C. we know
almost nothing. This lack of information may in part be accidental, but the
major factor was probably the lack of wealth and sophistication among most
Palestinians. The market for fine lamps probably existed only in the rich
-L-L
Fig. 6. Interior of late 3rd-century B.C. Tomb 2 at Tell Sandahannah. Top left: photograph of
painted lamp and lampstand on the south wall, courtesy df W. F. Albright. Top right: line
drawing of the lamp and lampstand, by R. H. S. (reduced to % original size). Below:
sketch of parts of the south wall of the tomb. From J. P. Peters and H. Thiersch, Painted
Tombs in the Necropolis of Marissa, fig. 6 (scale approximately 1/200).
Hellenistic cities of lowland Palestine. One interesting indication of the use
of such lamps comes from Tell Sandahannah, formerly the flourishing
Graeco-Roman city of Marisa. Around the turn of this century archaeolo-
gists discovered two handsome, painted family tombs of Sidonian aristocrats
who had lived at Marisa. Cut from the bedrock, these tombs were decorated
in the latter part of the 3rd century B.C. In Tomb 2 was a pair of paint-
ings of tall lampstands on opposite sides of the central chamber, each
surmounted by a bowl-like object which seems to represent a two-spout
108 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVII,
lamp (Fig. 6). The lamp is seen in profile, and from each nozzle emerges
a long red flame."lT he drawing on the south wall (illustrated here) is more
than eleven feet tall and the lamp is 71/4i nches across. The figures standing
beside the lampstand are about half-size, a fact which suggests that the
artist may also have drawn the lamp and lampstand to half-scale; but a pre-
cise calculation of scale is impossible, for Graeco-Roman genre art often
shows little concern for uniform proportion.
The lampstand in this drawing is painted a bright yellow, perhaps in
imitation of gilt bronze; the lamp is a rusty red, an imitation of bronze12o r of
red Greek glaze.13 The representationo f a red-glazed lamp is by no means
unlikely, for very large red-glazed lamps with two spouts of very much the
same design have been found in the 4th-3rd century deposits in Greece,14
the artist would not have thought it incongruous to depict a clay lamp on a
gilt-bronze lampstand, since an elegant lamp of this kind would probably
have been a valuable imported piece. A lid seems to cover the filling-hole
of the lamp, but the photograph does not show enough detail for the shape
to be determined exactly. Much of the difficulty in interpreting this paint-
ing is also due to the fact that the design has been repainted at least once
during the use-span of the tomb--not to mention the damaged state in which
the painting was found.
The lampstand is also noteworthy, since it constitutes the only surviving
indication of a Palestinian lampstand of the Hellenistic period, albeit one
which only the wealthiest and most hellenized people in Palestine would
have used. The form has its origins in Phoenician metallurgy, perhaps hav-
ing first been used in stands for incense bowls;'5 many centuries later the
influence of this pervasive design would crop out in Roman lampstands
such as archaeologists have discovered in large numbers at Pompeii and
Herculaneum.'6 Fine objects, particularly ones in metal, always tended to
be sensitive to older, classical designs.
This tomb illustrates well one use to which lamps were put by Pal-
estinians, at least the more hellenized ones, during this period. Tall lamp-
stands and lamps regularly stood in the large central chamber, or aulj, of a
Hellenistic house. When a man died his body was laid in state in the aul ,
surrounded by these lamps, as well as by various objects used in funerary
11. The vessel cannot be a cresset or thymiaterion (incense bowl) as W. F. Albright suggests in
BASOR, 85 (February, 1942), pp. 18-27, since such objects were regularly represented as having
the flame or smoke rising from the center of the bowl rather than at each end. A true censer is
drawn in Marisa Tomb 1 (J. P. Peters and H. Thiersch, Painted Tombs in the Necropolis of Maris-
sa, frontispiece).
12. So suggests Albright, BASOR, 85, p. 21.
13. Excavators Peters and Thiersch take the color to indicate a pottery lamp (Painted Tombs, p.
32).
14. Howland, Greek Lamps, no. 466.
15. Albright gathers a number of examples in BASOR, 85, pp. 22-25.
16. See L. Barr6 and H. Roux, Herculanum et Pompli, vol. VII.
4, 1964) THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 109
rites, such as censers and garlands on the walls.17 The tomb to which the
body was taken often reproduced features of the Hellenistic house, as does
the Marisa tomb with its aul2 and surrounding chambers in which the dead
were laid to rest as if in bedrooms. In painting the walls of this tomb the
artist has placed lampstands approximatelyw here pieces might actually have
stood in an auli. The small figures standing beside the lampstand, prob-
ably servants, complete the picture of the tomb as the house of the deceased
in which attendants see that all necessary duties are performed for their
master's comfort. Because the Marisa tomb had been looted before archaeo-
logists found it, few of the many objects left there with the dead are known
to us, but one may suppose that lighted lamps and torches may have been
carried by mourners who accompanied the body to the tomb, and that these
were left burning in the tomb.18
The evidence of this tomb points to pagan practices, but one can as-
sume that, on a more modest scale, many Jews of Palestine practiced some
similar rites involving lamps. The concept of the lamp as a symbol of life
was known in Palestine long before Hellenistic times. In all tombs of Hel-
lenistic times, whether Jewish or pagan, lamps are standard funerary equip-
ment, and often appear in considerablen umbers.
Palestinians undoubtedly made some use of the lampas, or torch, for
large scale illumination. Indeed, some linguists, having in mind that the
stem of the Greek word lampas is lampad, have thought-perhaps mis-
takenly-that the Greek noun was related to the Hebrew word for torch,
lappid. Ordinarily torches must have consisted of bundles of pithy wood
or grass. The Greeks had other terms for torches, especially dais, but that
word was usually applied to a firebrand of resinous wood and therefore
was not appropriatef or the materials commonly available in Palestine."9A s
in earlier times, Palestinians probably did not often use torches in their
everyday life, for fuel was scarce; they may, however, have used them for
special ceremonial occasions such as weddings, religious festivals and funerals.
In some public and religious buildings, such as the temple in Jerusalem,
torches were used to illuminate important chambers or passageways;20t hese
may have been permanent torches constructed of metal, into which pitch
and other combustible substances could be stuffed. No archaeological evi-
dence of metal torches has, however, yet been discovered in Palestine.21I n
any case, torches lay outside the realm of household lamps.
17. Such a scene, little changed from Hellenistic times, is depicted in detail in a 1st century A.D.
relief from the Haterii tomb in Rome; see P. Gusman, L'art ddcoratif de Rome, vol. III, pl. 142.
18. See J. C. Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, pp. 505-514.
19. See E. Pottier, "Fax," Dictionnaire des antiquitis grecques et romaines (ed. Daremberg and
Saglio, vol. II, pp. 1025-1019.
20. The Babylonian Talmud mentions torches in the temple (Middoth 1.2; cf. 1.9).
21. Regarding metal torches, see the comments of F. W. Robins, The Story of the Lamp, pp. 7-8
Robins also discusses the fuels used in torches.
110 THE BIBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. XXVII
Throughoutt his century and the Hellenistic period in general, olive
oil continuedt o be the chief fuel for lamps.P etroleumf uels were beginning
to be known by this time, but were unsuitablef or lamps.P alestiniansm ay
have been burningp itch for centuries,a nd ample quantitiesw ere available
from the Dead Sea; but, except possiblyi n torchesa nd vessels of special
religiousf unction, it was an impracticalf uel, being much too thick and
irregularin its burningt o be dependableC. rudeo il, called by the ancients
naphtha,w as in use in Babyloniaa s a lamp fuel by the end of the Hellen-
istic period (if not earlier), as the first centuryB .C. pagan scholarP osei-
donius informs us;22 some passages in the Babylonian Talmud (e.g., Shabbat
20b ff.) also mentionn aphthaa s a lamp fuel, but these referencess eem to
be no earliert han the 3rd centuryA .D.23
. ............
Fig. 7. Lamps of the "Cnidus" type, ca. 2nd century B.C. Left: specimen from Tell Sandahannah.
Photograph courtesy of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem, Jordan. Right:
profile of specimen from Samaria, restored. From Samaria-Sebaste III, fig. 86, no. 1, used
by permission of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
On the whole, this early phase of Hellenismi n Palestinew as marked
by passive acceptanceo f new ceramicf orms but little creativenessP. ales-
tinians seem to have regardedH ellenismn ot as a new way of thinkingb ut
as a mattero f style which could be imitated.P alestineh ad no one to com-
pare with Heron of Alexandriaa, 3rd centuryB .C. mathematicianw ho in-
vented a self-trimmingla mp in which the wick advanceda s the level of oil
in the lamp dropped,24n or anyone like Philo of Byzantium,w ho around
200 B.C. inventeda complicatedm echanicall amp with a sphericalo il res-
ervoir.25O ld ways of thinkingw ere far too deeply etched to be easily dis-
placed by the western tide. But Palestiniansw ere at least becomingm ore
accustomedt o change, a fact which contributedt o the diversityo f lamp
forms which appearedi n the following century.
22. The passage is cited in R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology, vol. 1, p. 36.
23. II Macc. 1:18-36 gives a lengthy discussion of naphtha as a fuel divinely revealed during the
Persian period, but does not speak of the substance as fuel for lamps.
24. A. Neuburger, The Technical Arts and Sciences of the Ancients, pp. 241-242.
25. Neuburger, Technical Arts, p. 241.