The Izmir Center of the Archaeology of Western Anatolia (EKVAM) is glad to inform you that an international symposium on oil lamps in Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine Anatolia, will take place on May 16-17, 2019 at the Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey. Ancient oil lamps, especially produced by clay, were found in relatively large quantities in entire Anatolia, where they were produced between the Bronze Age and Medieval periods. So far the study of this implement has been overlooked in Anatolia whereas there is still a huge amount of unpublished material from excavations, field surveys and museums in Turkey. Ancient Anatolian oil lamps can be categorized based on different criteria, including material (terracotta, bronze, glass, lead and stone etc.), production (wheel-made or mould-made), typology, fabric, decoration, production, use and distribution. During the Archaic and Classical periods (i.e. seventh to mid-fourth century B.C.) handleless, round, wheel-made terracotta oil lamps were produced locally especially in the western Anatolia or imported in large scale. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods Anatolian lamps were produced more frequently as mould-made and typologically they have numerous varieties. In these periods oil lamps were utilised for profane and religious purposes, especially as tomb votives. During the mid-sixth/early seventh century A.D. the form of lamps was changed in Anatolia radically. In recent years some chemical analyses done within these objects yielded several results for the oil sorts used in these instruments.
In this symposium we only focus on terracotta lamps from Anatolia between c. early sixth century B.C. and early seventh century A.D., and attempt to set out a comprehensive model for the study of terracotta lamps, including their definition, typology, chronology, contexts, function, regional characteristics, and distribution patterns in Anatolia and of Anatolian lamps in the whole Mediterranean geographies, including whole eastern Mediterranean, Black Sea area, Roman provinces in the western Mediterranean, north of Alps (Germania and Britannia etc.) and north Africa. It is also our intention to create a complete bibliography of previous publications on Anatolian terracotta lamps. Our symposium deals only with terracotta oil lamps and not other lamps produced by bronze, glass, lead and stone etc.
We warmly invite contributions by scholars and graduate students from a variety of disciplines related to this insturment. Intended to bring together scholars of Greek, Roman and Byzantine ceramic archaeology to discuss a range of issues concerning this instrument’s characteristics, this symposium should be an excellent opportunity to increase our knowledge about this form. The following theme groups are the main questions of the symposium which are prescriptive:
- Terracotta lamps from archaeological field projects, museums and private collections,
- Ancient Greek and Latin textual sources on Anatolian lamps,
- Typological evolution of terracotta lamps in Anatolia during the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine periods,
- Transitional typological and functional features between Archaic and Classical lamps in Anatolia,
- Similar instrumenta in the ancient Near East and their relations to ancient Greek lamps in Asia Minor,
- What ancient Greeks and Romans thought about afterlife? Terracotta lamps in Anatolian funerary contexts,
- Domestic and commercial use of terracotta lamps in Asia Minor,
- Related instrumenta to oil lamps in the regards of their function,
- Typology and decoration of terracotta lamps in Anatolia in Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine periods,
- Iconography and decoration on Anatolian lamps,
- Relations of Hellenistic and Roman terracotta lamps to metal, glass and stone lamps,
- Major production centers of terracotta lamps in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine periods,
- Signatures of terracotta lamp makers on Anatolian lamps,
- Anatolian lamps found outside of Anatolia and their distribution,
- Roman terracotta lamps in Anatolia and out of Anatolia, and their differences,
- Hellenistic and Roman gravestones and other iconographic media depicting lamps,
- Early Byzantine lamps as an eulogical object for pilgrimage,
- Relations between early Byzantine terracotta lamps and some historical events,
- Reasons for its typological change in the mid-sixth/early seventh century A.D.,
- Exceptional finds of terracotta lamps in Graeco-Roman fashion after the seventh century A.D.,
- Materials, such as oil or other liquids, used in the lamps
- Ancient terminology for “oil lamps” in classical languages of Anatolia, such as “kandela” (“κάνδηλα”) in ancient Greek, “candela” in Latin, “qandēlā“ (“ܠܐܕܢܩ”) in Classical Syiac, qandīl (“ قَنْدِيل†”) in Arabic, “kandil” in Turkish and other ancient Near Eastern languages,
- Miscellanea
On these themes and questions, all disciplines, approaches and methods susceptible to bring some progress to our current knowledge are of course welcome: classical archaeology, Byzantine archaeology, archaeometry, petrography, history of art, ancient history, sigillography and cultural anthropology etc. Archaeometric papers related to lamp research are most welcome. English is the official language of the symposium. If you will allow us, your lecture will be recorded during the symposium and this record will be displayed in the Internet after the symposium.The symposium is free of charge. Unfortunately the symposium organization cannot undertake expenses of participants’ accommodation, travel, post-symposium excursion, the booklet of symposium abstracts and publication of the proceedings, as we have no funds available to defray the costs of participants. It will take place at the Burgundy Hall of DESEM in the Chancellery Building of DEU in Alsancak, Izmir. A local archaeological journal is planned as a special issue containing the symposium’s abstracts which will also be made available on the website. The proceedings of the symposium will be published in 2020. We will make the required hotel reservations as soon as we know the exact number of participants. The approximate cost for the accommodation per night + breakfast will be 25 €. A postsymposium excursion is planned on May 18-19 to Samos, Greece through Kuşadası. For the participants who cannot travel to Izmir, we will arrange a video-conference facility through Skype. There are several low-cost flight companies (Pegasus, Sunexpress, Atlasglobal, Onur Air, Thomas Cook, IZair, Easyjet, Eurowings etc.) which operate direct or connected flights to Izmir from several locations. The dates of our symposium have been regulated for those who are also planning to participate to the meetings in Turkey, entitled „41st Turkish symposium of archaeological excavations, surveys and archaeometry” and is taking place in May 2018.
The EKVAM has organized several international archaeological meetings under the series of Colloquia Anatolica et Aegaea, Congressus internationales Smyrnenses and continues to organize these annual scientific meetings in Izmir regularly every third week of each May (a list of past meetings and their publications in the series of Colloquia Anatolica et Aegaea, Acta congressus communis omnium gentium Smyrnae is at below). We would be delighted, if you could consider contributing to our symposium and contact us with the required information below before January 1, 2019. Our e-mail addresses are: gulserenkan@hotmail.com or terracottas@deu.edu.tr We would be thankful, if you send us your abstract and required information only in word doc. For all your queries concerning the symposium our phone number is: +90.544.938 54 64.
The organizers seek to widen participation at this symposium, and would like to encourage colleagues from all parts of the world to attend. The symposium committee kindly requests that you alert any persons within your research community who would be interested in participating at this symposium, either by forwarding our e-mail through Facebook or other similar social media, or by printing this circular or our poster and displaying it in your institution. We hope that you will be able to join us at the Dokuz Eylül University, and look forward to seeing you in Izmir!
Websites of the symposium
https://independent.academia.edu/TheLydiaSymposium
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/The_Lydia_Symposium
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(Photo: "Handwritten" by A. Birkan, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
