In this paper, I'm going to discuss the pottery oil lamps that were recovered from the Portus Magnus
of Alexandria with a special emphasis on those coming from the debris of the Iseum.
I will only briefly consider questions of chronology and typology and mainly focus
on the lamps' function and significance in the specific context of the temple to Isis.
Only as a reminder, we will note that the Iseum in red on the map was erected during the Ptolemaic
Dynasty on the secondary branch of the island of Antirhodos, which according to Strabo was part of
a private royal domain. Evidence suggests that Augustus maintained the temple after
the fall of the dynasty in 31 BC, but made it accessible to the general population of the city.
As indicated by both pottery and coins, the whole complex was destroyed by a natural
catastrophe probably around the middle of the first century AD, leaving a thick destruction
layer of accumulated limestone blocks and architectural remains, mainly on the
western side of the island's branch, as seen on the bathymetric map above.
This is where most excavation efforts concentrated over the years. However, in 2024, the eastern
side of the island revealed a series of clear stratigraphical levels that could be followed over
a surface of about 36 square meters. The deepest occupation, layer four on the little schema,
dates from the early third to the mid second centuryBC, presumably corresponding to the earliest phase
of the temple. In most squares, this stratum is separated from the destruction level by
a sterile sand layer of varying thickness, which is layer three in the diagram.
Now, one of the characteristics of the Iseum is the high quantity of lamps that were
found there. According to the excavation's database a total of 151 ceramic oil lamps
were recovered in the Portus Magnus. Of those 25 were distributed in various parts
of the royal harbour, as indicated by the little crosses on the map.
These finds range in date from the early 3rd century BC
to the 4th or possibly early 5th century AD.
The remaining 126 lamps were directly associated with the Iseum and the majority of them came from the
western side of the island (84%). They were particularly concentrated over a surface
of about 12 square meters, suggesting that they were stored together at the time
of the building's collapse, probably in the pronaos or the front part of the cella.
From this same area came the remains of the only bronze lamp that was found in the harbour.
We may assume that other valuable metal lamps were also kept in the temple as well as candles
and torches. While the former might have been salvaged after the building's destruction,
the latter would have not left any trace in archaeological record.
Whether all these lamps, ceramic or otherwise, had been purchased by the temple or were gifts
from visitors remains unknown. But a number of Ptolemaic and Roman papyrological sources make it
clear that the lighting of the temples was managed, from allocated supplies, by priests. For example,
a priest in charge of the lamp of the god Ptah is mentioned in a land plot register from the late
2nd century BC in Memphis. Another most pertinent example in the context of the Alexandrian Iseum is an
Oxyrhynchus papyrus dated to the first year of Octavian's rule over Egypt, of which you have
the translation on the screen. It records an oath given by the priests Thonis and Heraclides, both
lamp lighters to the temple of Serapis and shrine of Isis in Oxyrhynchus. They swear by Caesar, god
and son of a god, that they will superintendent the lamps of the above-mentioned temples.
Beside those reserved to the daily running of the temple, lamps, together with torches
and candles, were essential to the lamp lighting festivals and processions that were characteristic
of ancient Egyptian cults and later influenced Graeco-Egyptian and Roman religious practices.
Most prominent among those linked to Isis was the festival of the Navigium Isidis which marked the
opening of the navigation season in early March and serves as the background to the
final chapter of the adventures of Lucius in Apuleius Metamorphoses written in the 2 century AD.
Taking place in Kenchreai, the eastern harbour of Corinth. The celebration described in
this book included a procession by a large group of both sexes with lamps, torches,
candles, and every kind of man-made light to honour the source of the heavenly stars.
The high number of lamps discovered in the ruins of the Isis sanctuary on Antirhodos
confirms the importance of light in the cult of the goddess. For a great majority,
so 93%, these belong to mould-made types of the early Roman period, with wheel-made examples
representing only 7% of the total lamp finds, that is only nine individuals.
Of those wheel-made lamps, five were found in 2024 in the Ptolemaic level of the eastern
side of the island. One, the first one here, is of local manufacture and bears
a pre-firing undeciphered inscription under its base. The other four wheel-made lamps
are of Greek origin and correspond to early Hellenistic Attic types, as early as the second
half of the fourth but continuing into the first half of the 3rd century BC.
The other wheel-made lamps are later in date. They all come from the temple's destruction
level on the western side of the islands secondary branch and belong to the later
Ptolemaic or even early Roman period. Two are Cnidian, of a type that is commonly found in the eastern
Mediterranean between the late second and mid 1st century BC(the first two on the top),
and which is also known from land excavations at Alexandria. The last one [illustrated here] is a parallel from
the temple of Demeter on Cnidos. The first in the bottom row is a Palestinian Herodian
lamp -so-called because the types appearance coincides with the reign of Herod- and
the last one is a small lamp with a central tube of uncertain but presumed local origin.
The remaining 117 lamps are all mould-made and come from the building's destruction levels
on both sides of the island. Without going into intricate typological considerations,
this diagram summarizes the type's occurrence and their frequency in a broadly chronological order.
We can see that the great majority of the lamps belong to types Loeschcke I, IV and Broneer XXI. Some of
them have long chronological ranges. But most of the examples here date to between the Augustan
period and the mid 1st century AD hinting at the intense activity of the temple at that
time. Five lamps are earlier (at the beginning of the graph), potentially, like the wheel-made types
just considered, dating back to the late Ptolemaic period and only eight belonging to Loeschcke V and
VIII (at the end of the graph) are probably later than 50 AD, thus confirming the proposed dating of the
destruction of the temple. Three are unica in the present context and will be discussed separately.
Like for the wheel-made examples, only few are of Egyptian manufacture and even fewer,
namely two (the first ones above) correspond to the typical locally-made late Ptolemaic models that
are otherwise well known in Alexandria or from sites such as Memphis,
Heracleopolis Magna, and areas of the Fayum. Chronologically consistent with these types
are three Ephesian moulded lamps. Though they appear as early as the 2nd century BC
in some places, it is significant that they only occur at Kenchreai in context post-dating 44 BC.
In this respect their chronology fits well with the post-Ptolemaic phase of use of the Antirhodos Iseum.
The first of the unica lamps with a side handle and angular nozzle belongs
to a very distinctive type dated to the Augustan period. It is usually ascribed an Egyptian origin
because with one exception from Delos all examples with known proveniences come from Egypt whether
purchased on the antiquity market or found on excavations. However, I have great doubts
that our example is of local manufacture because neither its fabric nor its surface treatment look
Egyptian. The second is an (old) early Augustan Vgelkopf lamp, a type that is very rare, if not
unheard of in Egypt, but more prevalent in central Italy and the western Mediterranean. Finally,
the third is a boat-shaped lamp (the first one on the slide), possibly of local manufacture
and most likely dating to the mid or second half of the first century AD. Only the top part of
the lamp is preserved. It represents a boat's deck with a figure sitting at its bow holding a pair of
rowing blades. The image of a boat in the context of a temple to Isis inevitably evokes the feast
of the Navigium Isidis as mentioned earlier and its description in Apuleius Metamorphoses. In particular,
it draws attention to a passage where Lucius still in his donkey form witnesses the arrival of the
priests of Isis who follow in the steps of the initiates. He describes how the first priest
held a glittering lamp shaped like a golden boat, or boat cup depending on translations, with a tall
flame flaring from its central vent. It is not clear which material this sacred lamp was made of,
perhaps gold, but certainly not ceramic. In spite of its relatively coarse workmanship and small
size, the boat-shaped lamp may have been a token left by a dedicant alluding to the boat lamp of the
Isis mysteries. As it is, in the same spirit, other boat-shaped lamps clearly bear connections to the
cult of Isis-Aphrodite. The one illustrated here, kept in the British Museum and dated to 70 to 120
AD, is 63 cm long. Its iconography associates Dionysiac imagery with the couple Isis/Serapis and a
Tabella ansata placed on the centre of its deck mentions the epithet for the Cnidian Aphrodite.
The remaining of the moulded lamps, that is 109 objects,
refer to the Italian lamp types of the first century AD, also called medallion lamps because
of the decoration they bear on their top. Most of them have dimensions
varying between 6 and 8 cm in diameter, so fitting very nicely into the palm of a hand.
This suggests that they were not intended as fixed objects, but were often carried around
when lighted in or around the temple, perhaps a bit like a modern torch light.
The only ones that tend to be larger, sometimes considerably larger,
are the Loeschcke III Broneer XXI types, whose diameters often exceed 12 cm. According to
its reconstruction based on the size of its reflector, the largest of all probably had
a diameter of about 21 cm and could hold close to a litre of oil. Its reflector is elaborately
decorated with a bucolic scene representing Dionysos on Naxos (here set aside other lamps
at the same scale to see the difference in size). When filled up with oil, this object was
probably quite heavy and bulky. And it is more likely that it was used either the fixed light
or like the boat-shaped lamps of Apuleius in the framework of special ceremonies.
This large lamp offers a good example of the sometimes complex iconography that may
be found on the medallions of these objects. If we divide them by theme of representation,
we see that 27 have no decoration or no extent decoration. This relatively high
number can be explained by the presence of fragmentary lamps whose decoration
was not preserved, as well as by the fact that early Broneer XXI lamps of
the late 1st century BC and early 1st century AD generally had plain undecorated medallions.
36 lamps of our assemblage have non-figurative
or floral motifs like rays, oves, acanthus leaves, petals.
16 lamps bear animal representations, either real or mythological animals. Here we have lions,
eagles, a dog, a cockerel, and a frieze of mythological (terrestrial and marine) animals.
Only two lamps are erotica and one is a fragment of daily scene.
14 have religious themes often like the large reflector mentioned earlier linked with the Dionysiac
circle like panthers with cantharoi, satyres, an Erotes, a figure of possibly Isis
and 15 have gladiatorial subjects, generally a single gladiator or combat scenes. Some of these
categories have obvious connections with the cult of Isis, but for others the link is more tenuous
to say the least. This is particularly the case for the last of my categories,
which is a small group of five objects that seem to convey a political or ideological
message emphasizing the power of Rome. In spite of their presence in a temple to Isis,
these lamps have no regards whatsoever for either Egyptian or Graeco-Egyptian sensibilities or
religious notions, quite on the contrary. The first three are all related to Victoria who like
the gladiators is a very common subject on lamps throughout the Mediterranean. One representation
shows the goddess' attributes and the other two her personification. On the first, an Augustan Loeschcke I
lamp, the goddess is standing on a globe and on the other which is a large Broneer XXI reflector
of the mid 1st century AD or later, she is holding a shield that bears the remain of an inscription
reading OB CIVES SERVATOS for "having saved the citizens". This phrase goes back to Augustus. It
is found on his coinage and was recycled on coins of Vitellius and Vespasian. Parallels to the image
of Victoria with the inscribed shield are known elsewhere on lamps of the Augustan period.
It was suggested that such images of Victoria, in particular the ones standing on the globe are
allusions, if not reproductions, of the statue that was erected by Augustus in the Roman Curia
after his victory at Actium. The next image is on a small-sized Loeschcke I lamp. It
illustrates the patriotic tale of Marcus Curtius' sacrifice known to us from Livy's book VII. As
the story goes, in 362 BC in the early Republican period, a large sinkhole opened in the Roman forum
and the gods demanded that Rome sacrificed her most precious possession to save the city. A young
warrior named Marcus Curtius declared that nothing was most precious to Rome than arms and valour.
Mounted on his horse and dressed for battle, he plunged into the chasm, thus saving the city.
The image of the warrior raising his spear with his cape flapping in the wind and his
horse bending his right front leg and his fall was a popular iconographical motif
in early imperial Rome here on a relief from the Roman Forum. Finally, the last lamp which
I placed in this category is a larger Broneer XXI type that bears a very enigmatic scene. We see a
naked and unkept bearded man, armed with a sword and cowing away behind his round shield. Facing
him is a god-like figure of a clean-shaven young man with short hair, also naked but for a folded
drapery over his shoulder. He repels or moves the shield but without showing any aggression. So far
I have not found a good parallel for this image whether on lamps or elsewhere. In the absence of
a more suitable interpretation, we may understand this scene as an allegory of the emperor pacifying
the barbarians and it may thus be considered together with the pro-Roman ideological subjects.
Now to conclude, the lamp finds from the Antirhodos Iseum span from the still
mysterious earliest phase of the temple in the mid 3rd and 2nd century BC to its
destruction around the mid 1st century AD. The dense concentration of lamps within a
single context is exceptional in an Egyptian setting, even from an Alexandrian perspective,
and further supports the religious character of the site. The dominance of Italian type
lamps in the early imperial period, most of which were imports from Italy or East Greece,
is also significant. While some, often east Greek in origin, allude to the Graeco-Egyptian notion of
Isis and Osiris in his Dionysiac form, others bear typical Roman motifs such as animals,
gladiators or themes glorifying the new ruling power. Our picture is partial because we only have
clay lamps remaining, which is a cheapest kind of lighting implements and we miss the more expensive
metal models which may have been more directly related to the cult of Isis. Nevertheless, the
small clay lamps probably dedicated by individuals also translate the political realities of the
time. They are not only important chronological markers for the temple and its history but
through their origin and iconography are also the reflection of diverse traditions and ideologies
that allow us to evoke the long-gone individuals who used them and the world they belonged to.
In their own ways, they illustrate some aspects of the assimilation of traditional Ptolemaic cults
into the Roman world and echo the Oxyrhynchus papyrus mentioned earlier where the two lamp lighters of
Isis and Serapis do not only swear their oath of service to the overseer of the temple,
but first and foremost to Caesar himself, thus acknowledging him from the very start as a new
supreme ruler of the country for both secular and religious matters. Thank you for your attention.