Found Ancient Roman Terracotta At The Dump!

[coinman123]

Today I went to the dump, and decided to check out the little area where you can put stuff that is still good for other people to take. I have had some good luck finding cool stuff there in the past, and was hoping to find something cool today. I noticed these two extremely crude terracotta pieces, I thought they were either new pieces made by an amateur, or very old. At first I thought that the smaller pieces was an old ink well, and I wasn't very sure about the larger piece. When I got home I was able to ID the piece I thought was an ink well as an ancient Roman oil lamp. I was pretty sure that it was a reproduction at first, but then I noticed that there is some discoloring due to fire on it caused by it's use as a lamp (which is common on most real ones). Apparently Roman oil lamps aren't very rare anyway, millions of them were made, and there are still tons of them being found today. My second piece looks to be a Roman wine jug, with a strainer on top. This piece isn't in the best shape, it feels a little crumbly and has many chips, but I am still amazed that it is intact after almost 2000 years. Anyways, if anyone has knowledge about Roman Terracotta let me know if I am missing anything, and what time period these are from! Thanks!




Here are a bunch of early oil lamps at a museum, they predate mine by a little, but a very similar. As you can see, they are pretty common.

 

[CRUSADER]

Needs an expert eye, those oil lamps are heavily reproduced, seen more 'copies' than real ones, which like you say are fairly common.

 

[Madmox]

The term for the other piece is amphora. But again I would be curious is it is actually authentic given they are generally larger and generally not whole.

 

[diggummup]

As stated these are heavily reproduced and have been made for thousands of years.

I've got a couple authentic oil lamps myself. Figured I'd share since it relates.

This is from Israel/Jordan, 6th-7th centuries AD."Late Samaritan" type.

This one is from North Africa (Tunisia) and dates between 175 – 250 AD. Motif: Isis facing Serapis, though hard to see. The black marks are the remains of the slip. The brown stain round the filling-hole is rust from a wick-pin.

Here is a better example. Ancient Lamps - Lamp Details for RNA11

 

[A2coins]

great find hope its the real deal

 

[coinman123]

Thanks for the input guys! It seems there are tons of reproductions out there. Is there anyway I can easily be pretty certain whether or not they are real or not? Either way, still very happy considering I paid nothing for them, even if they are reproductions.


Also, the amphora is probably around 10 inches tall, not sure if that is the right size for one or not.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Real or not, it's an interesting find...

 

[Plumbata]

Very unusual dump finds, could you please post pictures of the bottoms?

I primarily collect metal antiquities but have some ceramics, and as already stated reproduction oil-lamps are everywhere, with examples running the spectrum from obvious ignorant tourist fakes to highly sophisticated examples with convincing damage/wear, patina and mineral encrustation. Israel is a major modern source of millions of fake lamps and other items sold to gullible Christian pilgrims and undiscerning collectors worldwide, just as the Levant and Near East in general has been a source for fake antiquities of all sorts for well over a century. The carbon on the lamp looks far too fresh to have been deposited in antiquity, been buried for centuries, then undergone the necessary cleaning after excavation. It also appears the wick was placed in the oil-filling hole instead of the wick-spout (likely a rookie move by a tourist) and the surface appears too fresh and rough and lacking absorbed ground/mineral deposits. I'm no expert and generally avoid ancient ceramics due to both less personal experience as well as the overwhelming quantity of outright fakes or fraudulently identified items (i.e. common medieval-19th century pottery vessels sold as Greek or Roman, etc.) but am pretty confident in saying the lamp is modern.

The other item is unfamiliar but does appear to have some age, so I'd focus on that and try to figure out what exactly it is. My gut tells me it is probably an Islamic Golden Age or later Ottoman era vessel, so perhaps interesting in its own right but not related to the civilizations of Classical Antiquity.