The Lamp Molds and Lamp Production of Tlos in the Roman Period

Abstract

Many lamp molds and the lamps produced from these molds were found during excavations in the building complex of the parliament building in the Ancient City of Tlos. This material group, evidencing local lamp production, has been evaluated together with lamp molds found in other excavation areas of the city. Among the Tlos finds, three different types of molds were found: upper, lower, and handle shields. Of the numerically dominant upper molds, those with determinable form were grouped according to their profile features in a chronological index.The Broneer Type XXIV (cat. no. 1-10) and Broneer Type XXV (cat. no. 11), dated to the 1st century AD, are the most common forms of the Early Roman Imperial Period, and both of them are seen in the Tlos molds. Furthermore, the molds belonging to the Broneer Type XXVII group show the intensity of lamp production in the 2nd-3rd century AD, whereas the Broneer Type XXVIII-XXXI groups are important in terms of showing that production continued in the 4th-5th century AD. The preferred decoration patterns for these molds included mythological figures, gladiator combats, animal figures, ship descriptions, and herbal ornaments. The Tlos lamp repertoire, which includes the lamps produced in Attic and Corinth workshops, were further enriched with expressions specific to the city. The repetition of the same decoration pattern in more than one mold is important in that it indicates production capacity and popular lamp forms. The monograms consisting of Greek letters and linear characters on the back of the upper molds give us clues about the archive system used in the workshop. Only one (cat. no. 49) of the upper molds was endowed with the lamp maker’s name, and one (cat. no. 98) of the lower molds with the workshop emblem.