Roman Lantern

Roman Lantern

Lantern with wide round beak and with handle perforated, bearing at the edges 14 geometrizations, and at the center a running horse. Red-brown terracotta. The lamp was the main lighting tool of antiquity, as well as one of the most widespread artifacts in human homes. It had various functions, such as domestic, funerary and religious use. Lanterns could have one or more flames and changed shape over time. The oldest type dates back to the Bronze and Iron Ages, that is, III-I millennium b.C. The real evolution of these instruments occurred in the Roman-Republican era, thanks to the production through matrices.