Cosa, the lamps

the long version

This is the fifth volume publishing materials from the Italian city of Cosa, excavated by Frank E. Brown, L. Richardson, jr, and Russell T. Scott, together with their colleagues at the American Academy. Cleo Rickman Fitch and Norma Wynick Goldman have compiled a wonderfully thorough and precise catalog of the diverse clay lamps employed at Cosa, both moldmade and wheelmade. The lamps, divided and described by type, are copiously illustrated: more than one hundred figures give the lamps' profiles, decorative images, and the makers' signatures. The authors have also provided an illustrated chronology of the lamps in relation to Cosa's history, an outline of the development of the lamps' features over time, and a concordance to Cosa inventory numbers. This comprehensive study offers information useful to scholars and students in a wide variety of areas. Since lamp technology was similar throughout the Mediterranean area, and since lamps were sold and used widely in the same region, this catalog provides helpful information on contemporary trade and commerce. These lamps were recovered from various kinds of buildings at Cosa, and they thereby offer information on various aspects of town life both secular and religious.