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  Magna Graecia: Greek Art From South Italy and Sicily > About the Exhibition > Gela > Lamp with Ram and Human Heads (about 630-620 BC)
 
 
Lamp with Ram and Human Heads (about 630-620 BC)
Gela, Predio Sola, sanctuary
Terracotta, pink clay, white slip, hand-sculpted, finished with a stick, painted
Museo Archeologico Regionale di Gela, inv. 7711
[Cat. no. 55]

Lamp with Ram and Human Heads (about 630-620 BC)

The shape of this unusual painted terracotta lamp appears to have been influenced by triangular marble oil lamps made in the Cycladic islands off the coast of Greece.

The lamp has six reservoirs for oil: three are attached to the rams' heads, and the remaining three are placed at the tops of the human heads. Presumably, the lamp was used in religious ceremonies and was somehow suspended by an openwork hanger.

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