The Lamps of Late Antiquity from Rhodes: 3rd–7th centuries AD

Angeliki Katsioti publishes the corpus of late antique lamps recovered in rescue excavations in the town of Rhodes, dating from the third to the seventh centuries AD. The catalogue documents forms, decoration and chronology while tracing changing artistic preferences within a regional market.

Excavations in houses, streets and cemeteries have brought these everyday objects to light in a city transformed by changing urban fortunes and the earthquake of AD 515. Katsioti groups lamps associated with Corinth, Cyprus, Attica, North Africa and other workshops, setting their styles beside evidence of trade and local production. Clay analyses, including neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence studies, add another means of investigating where the lamps originated and how they circulated.