Byzantine Period Oil Lamp with Seven Spouts

Perhaps a stylized menorah, this lamp may have lit a Jewish home or temple during the sunset of the Classical age. A metaphor for joy and prosperity, for hope, for life itself, lamps have illuminated the path of civilization for centuries. They have guided great thoughts through the night, stood vigil with lonely passions. In the presence of this simple object, we are in touch directly with a vanished world, with the people once warmed by its glow. Today it remains as an enduring symbol of man’s desire to conquer the darkness.