Terracotta Lamp with Shepherd Bearing Sheep

The purpose of a lamp is to illuminate the darkness. Since the beginning of time, people have seen light not merely as a physical phenomenon but also as a symbol of life. The underside of the lamp bears the seal of the potter Florentius, active in the early third century. A relief decoration impressed into the clay shows a shepherd carrying a sheep in the midst of a herd of seven sheep as an allegory of peace and good luck. To the left Jonah is being spit out of a sea monster’s maw, to the right the naked Jonah rests under pumpkin foliage (Jon. 4:6) – a reference to divine salvation from darkness. A bird on Noah’s ark (in the shape of a box) also proclaims trust in God for salvation from need (Gen. 8:9). Above hover the busts of the sun (Sol) and moon (Luna) as well as seven stars, the cosmic guarantors of perpetual light. Used in daily life, the same lamp – perhaps one of the very earliest Christian images – could later serve its owner in the form of grave goods.