Lamp with heart-shaped discus and angular nozzle

The closest parallel found to this rare shape is a lamp from the Athenian Agora, which has sharper nozzle angles and an ornament handle (Perlzweig 1961, no. 90, pl. 4). The color of clay and slip of cat. 514, the depth of its basin, the small circles impressed on the shoulder near the handle and on the nozzle, and the planta pedis on its base with three small circles, attest to the eastern place of manufacture or origin of this item purchased in Asia Minor (see Loeschcke type VIII. Introduction, before cat. 278). Perlzweig dates the Athenian Agora lamp no. 90 to the mid-first century A.D. The sharpness of its nozzle angles and its ornament handle point to an earlier date than we propose for cat. 514: end of the first century A.D. or later.