The exhibition aims to make known the usefulness of this small objects that changed shape and decoration during the centuries of Roman rule. They are objects usually made from ceramics, although there are also samples made from bronze, which were used as lighting as they are equipped with a reservoir filled with oil or other fuel with a wick which was lit. They are generally small objects, although there existed some with a larger reservoir

Background. Lamps have been documented since Neolithic times, in Prehistory. We know Phoenician and Attic examples which usually take the form of recipients or open, uncovered bowls as in the Iberian age, into which the necessary material was placed for the combustion.

Parts of a lamp. The lamp consisted of a reservoir into which fatty matter was placed, a channel with a wick and sometimes a handle for holding it. The reservoir was usually covered and often it depicted iconographic scenes and motifs.

It can be seen at the Archaeological Museum of Alicante as from 1 August.