Oil-lamps in the Holy Land

Book excerpt: From the beginning to the Hellenistic period. Collections of the Israel Antiquities Authority In the course of the past century, excavations in Palestine have turned up large numbers of oil lamps. This first volume in a planned catalogue raisonné, summarizes the typological development of Palestinian oil lamps from the earliest such items of the Late Chalcolithic period onward, and their historical, cultural, and political contexts. The abundance and great variety of the material make this, a difficult undertaking - particularly for the oil lamps of the earlier periods dealt with in the present volume. Detailed descriptions of many items in the collections of the Israel Antiquities Authority, as well as of recorded oil lamps from other sites and neighboring regions, serve here as a basis for generalizations and conclusions.