Archaeological Museum of Bologna

Terracotta and bronze oil lamps were the most common type of lighting in the Roman world from the first century BC. They comprised a shaft that served to hold combustible – oil or tallow – and one or more spouts which held the wick; they might also have a handle. Through the feeding hole on the body, the tank was filled with oil or tallow that burned through a wick in linen or hemp. The terracotta specimens were first made on the lathe, then mass-produced through the use of matrices, with the handles and the relief decorations applied separately. The huge range of illustrations that decorates volute and disc-type oil lamps, including divinities, symbols, performances, animals, mythological, erotic and everyday scenes, is especially interesting from a documentary standpoint.
Bronze oil lamps were prior to the fictile type and were considered a luxury item for the wealthier classes. They were precious because of the material used and how they were manufactured, since the cast could only be used once. While terracotta lamp decoration was more or less restricted to the disc, bronze lamp motifs were likely to be on the handle and sometimes on the lid.
The lamps were made in series using moulds and were a very low-cost item, used extensively to light the various parts of the house and of public buildings. They were often also part of grave goods, as symbols of life and a guide for the deceased in the kingdom of the dead. They were also left as offerings to the divinities, given as augural gifts for the new year and exchanged by lovers.
Roman oil lamps changed shape over the years they were in production, which means it is reasonably easy to classify the types and date them precisely.