GLASS OİL LAMPS FOUND İN SAMSAT EXCAVATİONS


Samsat, history of which goes back around 4000 BC, carries the traces of many civilizations. After serving as the capital city of Commagene kingdom for a while, it was conquered by Muslims following the Roman and Byzantine sovereignty. Having changed hands between Byzantine and Islamic states from 7th to end of 11th century, the city enters into Seljuk domination in the 12th century. Samsat, having went through Dulkadir and Ottoman periods following the Artuqid, Zengîd and Ayyubid administrations, is now located beneath the Atatürk reservoir. During archaeological salvage excavations performed here due to the dam construction, a multitude of glass findings were obtained. Among these, glass oil lamps form an important group. Most of the glass oil lamps that can be dated from the Late Roman - Early Byzantine period are from the Byzantine and Medieval periods of Islam. All of the oil lamps, other than one sample, are broken. In these oil lamps, which were produced with free blowing technique; transparent colorless glass, as well cobalt blue, greenish and dark green colored glasses were used. There were no ornaments on the obtained oil lamps. These are typologically divided into six groups; cup-shaped, bowl body with handle, striped, vase-shaped, shouldered and egg-shaped. Among these, the cup-shaped piece belong to the Rome or Early Byzantine period and an oil lamp with a hollow stem belongs to the Early Byzantine period. Knucled-striped type, bowl-type and ball-striped oil lamps are seen in both Byzantine and Medieval Islam periods. On the other hand, vase-type and shouldered oil lamp samples are from the Islamic period. Unlike the others, egg-type oil lamps were found only in Samsat excavations. Their periods and dates are still controversial. We think that a group of handles found in the excavations belonged to glass oil lamps.


Keywords


Samsat, glass, lamp, Byzantium, Medieval Islamic art

Author : Zekiye UYSAL
Number of pages: 1139-1158
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/TurkishStudies.22894
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Turkish Studies-Social Sciences
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