A Byzantine Lamp Hoard from Anamur (Cilicia)

Abstract

In the course of excavating a well-preserved late Roman bath building at Anemurium (modern Eski Anamur) during the summer of 1968 a large hoard of some six hundred and fifty whole terracotta lamps plus fragments were found stacked in a disused hypocaust system. Since that time many fragments of similar lamps and a mould have also been discovered in other parts of the site in mixed fills containing pottery of the fifth to mid-seventh centuries A.D. As few lamps of similar types have been published from the eastern Mediterranean from datable contexts the value of the Anamur hoard both as a chronological indicator and as a stage in the development of late Byzantine and early Islamic lamps is evident.Although no datable material was found with the lamps themselves the abandonment of such a considerable body of material may perhaps be best explained by events at the site in the mid-seventh century. At this time the city seems to have been deserted, probably as a result of Arab raids on the coastal cities of Cilicia, and was only briefly reoccupied six centuries later. As there are no marks of burning on any of the lamps and as some filling and wick holes are incompletely punched through, the hoard may well be the stock of a shop or merchant hastily put away at some moment of danger and never reclaimed.