Lamps without handle

Bailey’s assumption that the Italian examples of his type C always have handles is too categoric, as shown by a lamp with no handle found in Southern Italy (Zaccaria Ruggiu 1980, p. 96, no. 127), to mention just one example. Lamps of the type with no handle exist in provinces outside Italy, although certainly in limited numbers (see, e.g., Goethert-Polaschek 1985, no. 605, pl. 65 [Trier]; Deneauve 1969, no. 635, pl. 44 [Carthage]; Bussière 2000, no. 374, pl. 37 [Tipasa], or nos. 375–76, pl. 38 [Tebessa]).

The five Getty lamps of this type all have a small slim nozzle. This feature, as well as the nozzle with V-shaped channel on cat. 243 and already noticed on lamps of Loeschcke type I A, is a sign of an early date of the type, ca. mid-first century A.D. Two lamps have a shoulder of Loeschcke form VI a (cats. 244–45), and two of form VII b (cats. 246–47). One has a base-ring (cat. 244), the four others a base marked off by a circular groove. Two discuses are plain, two are decorated with rings, one with a scallop. In light of these observations, we will attribute this group to the very beginning of the Loeschcke type V production: ca. mid-first century A.D.