EMPRESS AND AFRICAN: TWO FEMALE IMAGES ON TERRACOTTA OIL LAMPS FROM THE RED SEA PORT OF BERENIKE
EMPRESS AND AFRICAN: TWO FEMALE IMAGES ON TERRACOTTA OIL LAMPS FROM THE RED SEA PORT OF BERENIKE

Author(s): Iwona Zych
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: oil lamp; Berenike; Red Sea trade; Byzantine empress; African; venationes; Tunisian workshops; ARS; imitation
Summary/Abstract: Two early sixth-century terracotta oil lamps from Berenike are an indirect witness to the sources of trade (and the people involved in the commerce) that passed through the Red Sea port. Oil lamps made of clay were rarely a commodity for sale, yet they traveled inconspicuously, part of the personal luggage or a luxury item, more a souvenir or a gift than a traded item. In a harbor like Berenike, a melting pot of different cultures and tastes, their presence reflects the major and minor players on the local commercial scene. These two special pieces, one absolutely unique in terms of the iconography of its decoration, showcase the individual preferences of their otherwise anonymous owner: on one hand, a belief in the protective power of the image of a Byzantine empress in fifth and sixth century Mediterranean society and, on the other, a taste for the exotic, a portrait head of an African woman (?), expressed in craft work.

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