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Mould-made black-slipped Egyptian head lamp, with depiction of Harpokrates, c. 1001 BC. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE27198. Photography © Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Of the lighting equipment known from Naukratis, oil lamps are best represented with over 330 pieces known to have come from the site. The assemblage allows us to trace the changing uses of lamps within Egyptian and Greek societies over time. In the New Kingdom, olive oil was an commodity imported by the elite, but by the Roman period castor, sesame, linseed and olive oil were widely available for use in lamps. This chapter discusses the production and use of these utilitarian objects that also held important religious and ritual meaning, which can be discovered from the deposition practices reflected in the archaeological context.

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Alexandra Villing, Marianne Bergeron, Giorgos Bourogiannis, Alan Johnston, François Leclre, Aurlia Masson and Ross Thomas

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With Daniel von Recklinghausen, Jeffrey Spencer, Valerie Smallwood, Virginia Webband Susan Woodford

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