Unique Roman mask lamp found in Netherlands

A unique Roman oil lamp in the shape of a theatrical mask has been discovered in Cuijk, the Netherlands. It dates to the 2nd century A.D. and is complete and in excellent condition.

The lamp is elaborately decorated with botanical motifs, with a large headdress-like acanthus leaf springing from a scallop shell on the forehead of the wide-eyed and even wider-mouthed mask. The sides of the face are framed in curls and what may be two small animal ears. His nose and heavy brow suggest it may be a satyr mask. The mouth serves as the filling hole of the lamp. The “neck” underneath it (actually the nozzle of the lamp) is edged with a fluted border that narrows and then widens again around the wick aperture.

Inspired by the expressive character masks of Greek theater, theatrical masks were common decorative motifs in architecture, art, gravestones and even on everyday utilitarian objects like oil lamps. Lamps with mask motifs are well-known in the Roman world, and when placed in the graves of the deceased, they took on the symbolic role of lighting their way to the underworld. This example is unusually elaborate, however, with its ornate decoration and detailed relief integrated into the shape of the lamp itself. The more typical mask lamp features lamps or actors and masks carved in relief onto the discus of the lamp (the circular top surrounding the filling hole).

It was discovered in the excavation of what has proven to be the largest Roman cemetery in North Brabant. Only an estimated 15% of the burial ground has been explored, and so far more than 85 graves have been unearthed, many of them containing significant goods, including handled jugs, clay plates, glass bottles and jewelry. The reddish plates are terra sigillata, aka samian ware, a type of fine pottery with a flossy glaze made of iron-rich clay in Gaul. The unglazed white vessels were of Germanic production.

Square pits dot the ground, some of them with the tell-tale black stains of carbonization from cremations. Archaeologists found a large number of potsherds, evidence that while the bodies were burning, mourners threw offerings in vases and jugs into the fire. The pottery exploded from the heat and the organic offerings were consumed.

The modern town of Cuijk was the Roman settlement of Ceuclum in antiquity. The large quantities of pottery discovered in the cemetery confirms that the population had wide access to consumer goods imported from elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

This video captures the moment of discovery and how the lamp reveals itself in increasingly complex detail as the archaeologist brushes away the dirt.

* This article was originally published here