Appendix 8.2

Incidence of Samian Lamps

CATALOGUE

By administrative region and site.

This catalogue lists the occurrence of items of this type recorded by the author in the course of the study. Whilst the distribution was not researched exhaustively it is hoped that this list will be a useful resource. Lamps in samian ware are evidently very rare in Britain; Joanna Bird stated in her report on the samian wares from the New Fresh Wharf site in 1986 that: "Donald Bailey tells me he knows of only two other samian lamps from Britain, both of which are probably earlier discoveries from the New Fresh Wharf site (Nos. 4.5-4.6)" (Bird 1986a, 146). See also Appendix 6.2, The Incidence of 'Black Samian' in Britain.

Part I. Plain Disc Lamps (without design)

London:

Probably New Fresh Wharf

From the Amherst collection, apparently discovered in 1880.

• One samian lamp, MOL Accession A.23833, is Loeschcke type X, and is stamped 'OPTATI' (Optatus). It is unused, complete and unblemished; it is believed to be mid-Antonine (Miller et al. 1986, 204, Fig. 4.5). Wheeler illustrates this lamp (1930, Fig. 15 No. 5), attributing it to the second century AD and noting that: "The stamp occurs at Faimingen on the Danubian frontier, but whether the potter worked in the Rhineland or in central Gaul is not at present known" (1930, 68).
• A second samian lamp, MOL Accession A.23834, Loeschcke type X variant, is stamped 'VIBIVS'. It is complete and probably unused; again it is believed to be mid-Antonine (Miller et al. 1986, 204, Fig. 4.6). The name VIBIVS also occurs on a Lezoux black-slipped lamp from the excavations at New Fresh Wharf 1974-8.

Both lamps are presently (2001) on display at the Museum of London.

Part II. Elaborate Moulded Lamps

London:

Presumably from London, now in the Museum of London, previously in the Guildhall Museum

· A lamp styled in the form of a head is held by the Museum.

Front view: African head; side view: camel.Currently on display to the public (April 2001).

This item has been published:

Oswald, F. and Davies Pryce T. 1920. An Introduction to the Study of Terra Sigillata, Longmans, London, PL. 85, No. 7.

Warwickshire:

Alcester, Explosion site 1976-7

Booth, P.M. and Evans, J. 2001. Roman Alcester: Northern Extramural Area, 1969-1988 Excavations, Roman Alcester Series Vol. 3, CBA Research Report 127, CBA, York.

Dickinson, B.M. 2001c. Illustrated samian ware, in P.M. Booth and J. Evans, Roman Alcester: Northern Extramural Area, 1969-1988 Excavations, Roman Alcester Series Vol. 3, CBA Research Report 127, CBA, York, 185-7.

Site type: By this period a 'Small Town'.

A lamp was recovered in Central Gaulish Lezoux ware in the form of an African head; this item is thought, probably, to be Antonine. Dickinson states that: "The upper part of the lamp was broken in antiquity and the broken sides were smoothed off to allow reuse" (Dickinson 2001c, 187, Fig. 123 No. 33). This lamp is similar to the lamp from London (above).

The context was 170, a very large pit, of Period 9 (late 3rd to mid 4th century in date), lying just outside a substantial domestic type building (Building V). [Identification BMD].

Part III. Lamps of Uncertain Form

Buckinghamshire:

Latimer villa

Branigan, K. 1971. Latimer. Belgic, Roman, Dark Age and Early Modern Farm, The Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society, Dorchester.

Detsicas, A.P. 1971. Samian ware, in K. Branigan, Latimer. Belgic, Roman, Dark Age and Early Modern Farm, The Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society, Dorchester, 132-4.

An example of a lamp in samian ware is reported by Detsicas: "broken but with handle and wick end complete"; Dimensions: 2.8ins by 2.4ins. Detsicas states: "Recorded in unpublished 1910-12 report with no reference to context" (Detsicas 1971, 134, No. 401).

London:

New Fresh Wharf 1974-8

Bird, J. 1986a. Samian wares, in L. Miller, J. Schofield, and M. Rhodes, The Roman Quay at St Magnus House, London. Excavations at New Fresh Wharf, Lower Thames Street, London 1974-78, London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Special Paper No. 8, London, 139-98.

A spout from a lamp in Central Gaulish samian ware is reported by Bird (1986a, 145, Fig. 85).