Original scientific paper
An oil lamp from Slovenia depicting a Roman glass furnace
Irena Lazar
Abstract
In 2002 and 2003 at Spodnje Škofi je near Koper (Slovenia) at an archeological site named Križišče(‘Crossroad’) part of a Roman burial ground beside the Roman road (via Flavia Tergeste-Pola) wasinvestigated. One of the cremation graves included an oil lamp with a representation of a glassfurnace.The relief is showing a glass furnace and to the left and right of it a glass-worker, one of whom isengaged in blowing while the other assists at the furnace. In the centre is the furnace, divided intotwo sections. The lower one serves as stoke hole (or stoking compartment); the upper section of thefurnace has a larger aperture and served as the glassblower’s working port. The oil lamp from thegrave in Slovenia is by far the best preserved of all three lamps (Asseria, Ferrara, Spodnje Škofi je). Therelief is very well executed, crisp and not damaged. Probably we may assume that the lamps fromAsseria and Spodnje Škofi je were made in the same mould, since their individual details are identical.The grave with the oil lamp from Slovenia can be placed in the second half of the 1st century orperhaps also at the beginning of the 2nd century.
Keywords
Roman period; Slovenia; glass-working; oil lamp; glass furnace; glass blowing
Hrčak ID:
8318
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2006.
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