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11-17-2003, 03:14 PM

I think you are right about trade in military and urban centres Aitor. In Britain these appear to have been the main focal points of Roman culture. Which makes me wonder if the rarity of oil lamp finds outside of these contexts could be because much of the indigenous population was not as affected by the influences of this culture, and carried on life much as before without a great need and/or desire for Roman "luxury" items. I'm thinking about the simpler folk here, not the elite. 
 
Could there be a parallel to this in the Basque country? How great an influence did Roman culture have there? I don't know much about the history of the region, but I did recently come across a reference to a cohort of Basques (Vasconni?) serving on Hadrian's wall. 
 
Pliny refers to the oil of castor-oil plants being used for lamps but doesn't rate it highly, and also to to the collection of bitumen on reeds from a certain spring in Sicily which was used instead of lamp oil by the inhabitants. 
There is also a reference in book XVI to reeds stripped of their outer covering being used for candles and funeral torches.

**richsc** · 11-17-2003, 10:13 PM

Roman's mass produced those small oil clay oil lamps that are found all over the empire. I see your point about them being found in Roman towns and cities, but do they show up in other contexts as well? They must have been very cheap. Legio XX 
Caupona Asellinae

aitor iriarte · 11-18-2003, 01:45 PM

Anaten, I think that the Basque country was totally romanised but most part of it was very poor. The result was many people living like during the Iron Age. IMHO we should speak more of 'poor' and 'rich' areas than of 'romanised' and 'scarcely romanised' areas. 
 
Rich, the fact is that clay lamps fragments only appear here in cities or medium sized villages. The clue is not as much the cheapness of the lamp as that it will be completely useless if you don't fill it regularly with olive oil! 
You can even think of it in terms of modern marketing: telephon compnies sell fashionable mobile phones at reduced prices to catch clients for their main trading stuff: phone calls. 
Maybe Roman oil dealers sold lamps to the people (the last cry in Roman way of life! ) expecting to widen their market. 
 
Aitor

Lepidina · 11-21-2003, 09:35 PM

Okay, stupid question but did people who didn't use olive oil in lamps have lamps or did they just use candles and fire places? I just thought of that. I guess whale oil wasn't used at the time unless you were an eskimo. 
 
Deb

aitor iriarte · 11-22-2003, 04:29 AM

Deb, 
I really don't know, because clay oil lamps leave always traces of their existance (you know, baked clay is useless when broken and, unlike metal or glass, it is non-recyclable), but ther are few candlesticks and they always are luxury items. 
I'd like to suppose that open tallow lamps did exist, but I haven't seen fragments of any of them. 
It is really sensible what you mention about fireplaces as the main source of light for the poor, maybe torches and tallow candles would make the rest! 
 
Aitor

01-18-2004, 03:04 PM

I came across some reference to 'matchsellers' in a classical work. (No doubt another one of those dubious translations!) I can't remember where it was to check, but the Latin word for what was being sold was something to do with sulphur. Does anbody know anything about the use of sulphur as a fire lighting material in Roman times? 
Roman matches??? Somehow I think not.

Lepidina · 01-18-2004, 04:16 PM

Sulphur has been used throughout the years as a disinfectant. During the age of sail, ships that had lost most of their crew to disease would be fumagated by burning sulphur througout the different decks and in the holds. I don't know how far back that goes tho'. So the reference could be for someone to burn it for medicinal purposes. 
 
Deb

**richsc** · 01-18-2004, 10:11 PM

Oxbow/David Brown actually has the book, but price seems to have gone up a bit: 
 
Illuminating Roman Britain 
by Hella Eckardt 
 
In this first detailed study of artifical lighting in Roman Britain, Hella Eckardt argues that the introduction and use of lamps resulted in dramatic changes in the way in which people used and perceived their homes. Her typological, chronological and spatial analysis of 2,600 examples of clay and metal lamps, lampholders and candlesticks, looks especially at the relationship between social identity and status, and the active use of lamps as an item of material culture. She reveals a strong bias towards the use of artifical lighting at military sites and large urban centres such as Colchester and London, in both everyday and religious settings, with no widespread usage in rural areas. Suggested reasons for this dichotomy in usage, and for other aspects such as changes in decoration, style and production, are also dicussed. 420p, many b/w illus (Monographies Instrumentum, Editions Monique Mergoil 2002) 
ISBN 2907303708. Paperback. Price US $82.00

01-20-2004, 04:24 PM

Deb, I've been doing a bit more looking up and it seems like sulphur was quite widely used in Roman times. I didn't come across any specific references for fumigation in cases of disease, but a certain type was utilized for medicinal purposes, so it could well be possible. Apparently wine amphorae were fumigated with sulphur to prevent fungal growth and temples were purified by the same means. 
It was also used for bleaching and softening woollens and I came across a kind that was used especially for making lamp wicks. I do wonder if the latter might be the explanation for the "matchsellers". Selling lamp wicks seems to make far more sense! 
 
Rich, that is one expensive paperback! Sounds like a fascinating read though.

Lepidina · 01-20-2004, 05:29 PM

Ah, that makes sense. I've got some modern anti-fungal and skin conditioner for horses that is sulfur based. Makes your horse smell like a volcano but works great and is cheap. Someone else told me that he used to use flowers of sulfur mixed with mineral oil on dogs that had skin problems. Sometimes, the old remedies are the best. 
 
Deb

**richsc** · 01-21-2004, 06:16 AM

I had not heard the bit about fumigating amphora with sulphur. Un glazed clay leaks so fast that it would be dry within a month of bottling (wine anyway). The interior being coated with resin, and if you want to reuse one of them, then you have to clean it out. Not easy with such a small mouth. 
Not sure how you would clean it with smoke if you wanted to keep the resin coating, or perhaps you recoated it? Legio XX 
Caupona Asellinae

01-22-2004, 03:11 PM

You've lost me on that one rich. 
Would smoke have dislodged resin? I always envisage it as being gluey sort of stuff. What kind of resin was used to seal the amphorae? I have a feeling this may have been discussed before but I can't remember where. 
Something else I've been wanting to ask though it's not exactly on the topic of lighting. Were those amphorae ever returned and reused for more shipments of wine, oil etc? I was wondering about it because of the staggering number of the things that were being shipped around.

**richsc** · 01-23-2004, 06:45 AM

I have no idea how the resin stayed in place, as it seems gluey and too plastic to work. But I understand it is what gives 'retsina' it's flavor. If I could find resin, I could recoat the amphora I used for my wine experiment and try that again. I was thinking wax but that is really hard to use and the archaeologists all say that wax was not used. 
 
It seems really strange too that the amphora would not be reused, but the end user was not a producer. Maybe they could return them for credit to the shipper? I have no references to that in my books. Legio XX 
Caupona Asellinae

aitor iriarte · 01-23-2004, 01:39 PM

Outside ancient Rome there is a big hill called Mount Testaccio. It is exclusively made of amphora sherds! 
Amphorae where mainly intended for sea transport. Once in land, they were fragile and cumbersome and their contents were transvased to other recipients, like skins or barrels. 
Other use for empty amphorae was as coffins for poor children oreven adults (for example, you cut away neck and shoulders of two long and broad oil amphorae and, assembling together the remaiders, you have a cheap pottery coffin) That is mainly seen at seaports. 
Of course, some amphorae travelled to the inner lands, maybe they contained specially valuable contents... 
 
Aitor

01-25-2004, 01:09 PM

"Outside ancient Rome there is a big hill called Mount Testaccio. It is exclusively made of amphora sherds!" 
Sounds like an archaeologist's nightmare! 
 
I was wondering about the transferral of wine from amphorae to other containers. From an article I've just read it seems that the preservation of wine was quite a business and it was shipped well sealed. My question is-how long would the wine stay good once the seals had been broken and the stuff decanted? 
I guess the wine shops would have a fairly quick turnover and people would bring along various containers to fill up? 
Another question-was wine ever transported in barrels or only in amphora? 
 
Just in case anyone's interested I'll post the link to the preservation article. It gives a list of classical writers who discuss wine making: 
www.2andrews.edu/~samuele...ble/3.html

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