Late Antique Lamps of Knidos

Abstract

Knidos Ancient City, located at the southwestern tip of Turkey in the Tekir Cape area, has been fascinating with its lamps throughout history. The world-famous Knidos lamps were popular grey production lamps exported from Knidos in the Hellenistic period, known as Knidos-type lamps in literature. Knidos-type lamps, which had an important export capacity in the Roman period, also formed the basis of Knidos lamp workshops. The city, which reached the peak of lamp production in the Roman period, continued its mass production until the 3rd century AD. Besides the lamps produced for local needs, there are also lamps dating back to the Late Antique period. Knidos Late Antique period lamps found in contexts fewer in number than those found in the Hellenistic and Roman periods constitute the subject of the study. Twenty-one samples dating from the 4th century AD to the early 7th century AD were included in the study and examined under four separate headings. While some of the lamps found in the structures, spaces, and layers used in the Late Antique period in Knidos were produced by reusing molds used in the Roman period, some also constitute the characteristic lamps of the Late Antique period. The infrequency of lamps dated to the Late Antique period compared to the early periods in Knidos is most likely due to the ending of mass production and the continuation of small-scale production only in line with demand. When we evaluate the oil lamps together with the architecture and findings of the buildings in which they are located we can see the context at the Late Antique period in Knidos. The Knidos Late Antique period lamps examined are similar to lamp samples found in settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean, centers in Western Anatolia, and cities in the Aegean world, proving that Knidos was in interaction with these settlements.

Keywords

• knidos
• late antique period
• lamp
• loeschcke type viii
• broneer type
• asia minor type