A substantial amount of pottery lamps was recovered in the port of Alexandria, particularly among the ruins of the Iseum on the sunken island of Antirhodos. They represent a unique assemblage.
Those pottery lamps coming from the debris of the Iseum’s destruction, dating from the late first century BC to the mid-first century AD, are of special value for their quality, quantity, state of preservation, and contextual data. Although metal lamps are absent (as they may have been retrieved in the aftermath of the building’s collapse), the pottery lamps from the Iseum constitute a unique assemblage, especially in an Egyptian setting, where moulded lamps of this period are better documented by historical public and private collections than by archaeological contexts.
The lamps from the Iseum seem to have been stored in the pronaos of the temple and were in use in the building up to the time of its collapse. The variety of types and sizes represented offer valuable insights into the practical role played by these artefacts in a cultic setting, while their diverse origins bear witness to the connections between Alexandria and the wider Mediterranean world. In particular, the prevalence of Italian lamps and the occurrence of typical Roman motifs on the medaillons of some of them is worth noting at a time when the imperial power was firmly establishing its rule over the province of Egypt.
This lecture by Sabine Laemmel of the IEASM was recorded as part of the 2025 conference "Alexandria and the Sea II" held by the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford.
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