Oil lamp, Thysdrus (El Djem, Tunisia) Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN1910.117.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN1910.117 AshLI 421

An oil lamp of fired clay, circular in form, with a handle. The discus is decorated with the image of an eagle. There is a filling-hole to the left of the eagle. It is in excellent condition.

Lamp: length, 0.10; height, 0.025/ 0.04 (including handle).

On the underside is the maker’s mark stamped into the base.

Letters: 0.004 El Djem, Tunisia AD 120-180 It was bought 19th December 1901 at the amphitheatre at El Djem (Tunisia), and given to the Ashmolean by the diplomat and scholar Sir Oliver Wardrop (1864–1948), who had graduated from Balliol College in 1891. At this time, he was serving as vice-consul in Kertch in the Crimea before continuing his sometimes hazardous and high-profile diplomatic career in the Foreign Office (Donkin 2004). The lamp is currently in store. Photograph: base. Photograph: base. Photograph: top.
Marcus Novius T

Marcus Novius T( ?) (made this)

Lamps stamped with this maker’s mark seem likely to have been produced by a North African workshop, given their distribution. For a typology of lamps bearing the stamp of MNOVIVST see Bonnet 1988: pp.123-128 (compare also Djuric 1995: p.51 + p.47 NA-270).

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS Accession Register 1910.117

Bonnet J. 1988 Lampes céramiques signées Paris Documents d’Archéologie Française no.13 Djuric S. 1995 Ancient Lamps from the Mediterranean. The Anawati Collection Catalog 1 Toronto Eika Donkin J. Wardrop, Sir (John) Oliver (1864–1948) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford Oxford: Oxford University Press http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49215 accessed 3 March 2017