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A Byzantine Lamp Hoard from Anamur (Cilicia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Hector Williams  and
Peter Taylor
Hector Williams
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Peter Taylor
Affiliation:
University of London
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Extract

In the course of excavating a well-preserved late Roman bath building at Anemurium (modern Eski Anamur) during the summer of 1968 a large hoard of some six hundred and fifty whole terracotta lamps plus fragments were found stacked in a disused hypocaust system. Since that time many fragments of similar lamps and a mould have also been discovered in other parts of the site in mixed fills containing pottery of the fifth to mid-seventh centuries A.D. As few lamps of similar types have been published from the eastern Mediterranean from datable contexts the value of the Anamur hoard both as a chronological indicator and as a stage in the development of late Byzantine and early Islamic lamps is evident.

Although no datable material was found with the lamps themselves the abandonment of such a considerable body of material may perhaps be best explained by events at the site in the mid-seventh century. At this time the city seems to have been deserted, probably as a result of Arab raids on the coastal cities of Cilicia, and was only briefly reoccupied six centuries later. As there are no marks of burning on any of the lamps and as some filling and wick holes are incompletely punched through, the hoard may well be the stock of a shop or merchant hastily put away at some moment of danger and never reclaimed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 25 , December 1975 , pp. 77 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1975

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References

1 For a preliminary notice see Smith, L., “Excavation Report, Eski Anamur (Anemurium), 1968”, Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, XVII.2 (1968), p. 178Google Scholar; Taylor, P. and Alföldi, E., “Excavations and Restoration at Anemurium, 1969”, TAD XVIII.2 (1969), p. 39Google Scholar, fig. 2, 3. We should like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Alföldi for providing the photographs used in this article and Mrs. Caroline Williams for the lamp profiles.

2 See Day, Florence, “Early Islamic and Christian Lamps”, Berytus VII (1943), p. 79 on this questionGoogle Scholar.

3 Russell, James, “Excavations at Anemurium (Eski Anamur), 1971”, TAD XX.1 (1973), p. 205Google Scholar.

4 Huber, G., “Die Restaurierung der Therme II 7 A in Anamur”, TAD XVIII.2 (1969), pp. 47–58Google Scholar.

5 Day, op. cit., p. 67, pl. X.2.

6 AN 72–163. Preserved length 0·078, width 0·075. Found in unstratified fill; coarse porous light brown clay: “Excavations at Anamur, 1972”, TAD XXI.2 (1974), p. 157, p. 165, Fig. 13Google Scholar.

7 Oziol, Th. J. and Pouilloux, J., Salamine de Chypre, I. Les Lampes (Paris 1969)Google Scholar, no. 469, pl. X; it is suggested on p. 24 that this and other early Byzantine lamps are of fifth century date, an unlikely early dating for which no grounds are given.

8 Rey-Coquais, J. P., “Lampes antiques de Syrie et du Liban”, Mélanges de l'Université St. Joseph, XXXIX (1963), p. 160, no. 38Google Scholar; Kennedy, C., “Development of the Lamp in Palestine”, Berytus XIV (1963), pp. 89–90Google Scholar.

9 Catling, H., “The Kornos Cave”, Levant, II (1970), p. 49, fig. 4Google Scholar.

10 Menzel, H., Antike Lampen im RGZM (Mainz 1969), nos. 562, 572Google Scholar.