Description
Lamp and a jug From archaeological digs in Israel. Ancient pottery from the time of King David.
The oil Lamp and juglet shown in this set were common throughout Judea and the Holy Land during the First Temple period.
Dated to the 10th – 6th century B.C, This lamp, of the “pinched” type, represent the morphological continuation of the typical Canaanite lamp that was spread in previous periods. However, during the First Temple period (Iron Age I-II), it’s nozzle become more tight, a fact that makes this oil lamp strongly related to the First Temple Period.
Iron Age period clay oil lamps shape is actually simple: a clay bowl into which oil has been poured, with one side of it pinched in order to place the burning wick on the lamp’s rim. The lamp was made without any decoration on it, which is in accordance with Jewish law.
By using lamps of this kind, the people of ancient Jerusalem and Judea were able to illuminate their homes during the night, a thing that was very essential in the daily life of antiquity. Alongside the oil lamp, this clay juglet is also dated to the First Temple period. Like the candle, it also lacks any decoration, yet the surface of the vessel is covered with a layer of red burnish.
The burnishing technique was common and very popular with the people of Judea and Jerusalem during the First Temple period. Many of the pottery vessels made by them during the period were made by the burnishing technique, which gave the vessel a unique beauty, while it was not allowed to be decorated with figurative patterns.
This set of ancient vessels, including the oil lamp and the juglet, is a typical example of vessels that were common in the household of the people of Judea while the First Temple existed, in the time of the prophets of Israel.
The words of Jeremiah son of Hizkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. (Jeremiah 1:1-3)
