Strata: What Is It?

A. Lamp

B. Cup

C. Musical instrument

D. Medical instrument

E. Pitcher

Answer: (A) Lamp

This glass lamp was found at Caesarea Maritima (“Caesar’s City by the Sea”), Israel. It dates to the 11th century C.E. and is a testimony to the medieval occupation of this important coastal city, which we typically recognize as the provincial capital of Roman Judea at the time of Jesus.

Characteristic of the Fatimid period, the lamp has a cup-shaped body and hollowed foot ending in a globular knob. It measures about 4 inches in height and 2 inches in diameter. The yellowish glass exhibits silvery weathering.

Footed glass lamps like this would be inserted into a bronze candelabrum (holder for several lamps or candles), and a cloth wick would be inserted to burn oil contained in the fount. While vegetable oils were mostly used with oil lamps in antiquity, olive oil was far more common in the southern Levant. Other types of oil-fueled lamps in the ancient Near East included an array of variously shaped spouted lamps made of pottery or metal (typically bronze).