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Ancient Oil-Lamp Workshop Found


guy

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I don't know anything about ancient oil lamps, but I found this article interesting:

 

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An ancient ceramic oil-lamp workshop — one of the largest ever found — has been discovered in excavations by the Antiquities Authority in the “Hey” neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh. Hundreds of ceramic oil lamps, two bearing symbols of the menorah ....

 

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This find yields important new information on Jewish and early Christian life during the Late Roman period, they said.

 

Ceramic oil lamps and stone lamp molds for their production were found along with terracotta figurines, December, 2020 (photo credit: DAFNA GAZIT/ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)

 

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/ancient-oil-lamp-workshop-sheds-light-on-roman-era-jews-and-christians-652056

 

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“The festival of Hanukkah is a wonderful opportunity to tell the public about the recovery of these oil lamps, which was the main method of lighting in ancient times,” the archaeologists said in a statement. In light of the importance of the find and its location, the authority and the ministry plan to preserve the site and incorporate it into a large park that will be open to the public.

 

Summary: These new discoveries of ancient artifacts help me to better understand the ancient world better. Honestly, I had never appreciated the importance of oil lamps on the ancient world.

Here's a nice review video on some ancient oil lamps:

 

 

guy also known as gaius 

Edited by guy
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  • 1 month later...

A better article on the find:

 

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“After the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt and Roman takeover of the region, the local Jewish population of the Judean Hills was greatly diminished. In turn, the region was settled by pagans. The many figurines unearthed at the site attest to this.”

“Simultaneously, a small number of the ceramic oil lamps area decorated with distinctively Jewish symbols such as the shofar, incense burner, and seven-branched menorah.”

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“During this period, Christianity also began to emerge, and some of the Beit Nattif oil-lamps carry fish motifs, one of the symbols of Christianity.”

“Therefore, the sheer variety of lamps and figurines proves that the local population featured a mix of pagans, Christians, and Jews.”

 

The post has a nice video, also:

 

lamp.jpg.46dfd09c3a04493a7d3ca66efec68b9d.jpg

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/beit-nattif-oil-lamp-workshop-09214.html

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