A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 53. (2014)
Régészet - Simon LÁszló: Római bronzmécses Szendrőládról
158 Simon László A ROMAN BRONZE LAMP FROM SZENDRŐLÁD, HUNGARY Keywords: Roman lamps and their use, Roman — Germanic (Vandal) connections, Roman Period sites in Borsod-Abauj- Zemplén County A Roman bronze lamp was unearthed at the Kecskés Hill in Szendrőlád in 1931/1932 (Fig. 1), and the find entered the collection of the Herman Ottó Museum. The object was unfortunately lost during WWII. However, data in the inventory book and a drawing of the find have been preserved, and therefore, it is possible to reconstruct the lamp on the basis of the drawing and its known size. The pear-shaped body of the lamp was placed on a pedestal ring base. It has a long nozzle with a circular end, which is rounded on the surface where it attaches to the body. Concentrical circles around its filling hole signify a ledge emerging from the discus. The ridge and shoulders rise from the body of the object. There is a vine-leaf decoration above the ring- shaped handle; its end probably broke off. The greatest length of the object from the handle to the end of the nozzle is 200 mm; the diameter of the pear-shaped body is 170 x 90 mm (Fig. 2). Dating was only possible on the basis of analogies and similar finds (from Pompei, Herculaneum, Intercisa, BratislavaVydrica). These suggest a dating to the end of the 1st, beginning of the 2nd c. AD. The time when it was used and transported to the Barbaricum area is unknown. Other Roman Imperial Period finds from Szendrőlád help the object’s dating only hypothetically and in a broad historical context. Setdement traces were observed 800 m south of the location where the lamp was found (Szendrőlád, Füveskert). The Roman archaeological material known from the village comprises iron objects (two knife fragments and a spur of the Ginalski A type) whose precise location of recovery is unknown, and three Roman coins (two bronze coins of Antoninus Pius and one denar of Caracalla). These suggest a broad chronological window for the archaeologically perceptible Roman habitation in this microregion: from the last third of the 2nd to the 3rd and 4th c. AD. Bronze oil lamps are sporadically found in the Barbaricum area, and are rare even in the Roman provinces. This lamp form has Italian origins. Bronze lamps with applique handles have precursors in the Italian so-called firma lamps, and such lamps made of clay were widespread in the whole Roman Empire. Olive oil was indispensable for their use and it had to be transported here from the Mediterraneum. Its limited availability, high expenses and problems with its transportation explain why oil lamps never became usual elements of interior furnishing outside the Roman Empire. However, oil lamps found in present-day northestern Hungary, mostly made of clay (see the Appendix), suggest that these objects were present as prestige gifts, booty, or even as commercial items, and some of the locals must have possessed such Roman lamps. Their proper use could be evidenced by amphoras in which oil was kept and transported, but no such find has been unearthed from this region so far. However, the lamps found in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, as well as those in the Museum of Kosice (37 pieces whose precise location of discovery is unknown but they must have been found in the region around Kosice, Slovakia) support the hypothesis that the local, mostly Germanic population, who had intensive contacts with the Roman Empire, were able to acquire the fuel that was needed to properly use the lamps. [Translated by Kyra Lyublyanovics] Simon, László
