A portrait oil lamp from Pontes

Possible interpretations and meanings within early Byzantine visual culture

Sofija, Petković, Milica, Tapavički-Ilić, Jelena, Anđelković-Grašar

Starinar

65

79

89

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-02411565079P

2015-2020/03/01/21:48:29

The subject of this paper is a fragmented oil-lamp, discovered at Pontes (east Serbia) dated to the 6th century, whose handle ending is shaped as a woman’s head. The question posed in this paper is whether the image of this woman could be identified as a portrait of some particular person or if it is just as a pictorial sign with some complicated symbolic meaning. The suggested identification alludes to the image of some of the empresses from the second half of the 6th century. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177007: Romanisation, urbanisation and transformation of urban centres of civil, military and residential character in Roman provinces in the territory of Serbia i br. 47018: Viminacium, Roman city and military camp - research of the material and non material culture of inhabitants by using the modern technologies of remote detection, geophysics, GIS, digitalization and3D visualization]

image, early Byantine, empress, Oil lamp, portrait