Early Samaritan Lamps, Samaria, Syria Palestina - Palestina Prima, 280 - 525 A.D.

Sussman 2002, fig. 13; Goodnick-Westenholz 2000, pp. 52 - 53

We follow Adler, who calls this lamp type "Early Samaritan." Sussman dates the type from near the end of the 3rd century to the 6th century. Adler dates it from the end of the 3rd or the 4th century to the 5th century. Samaria was part of the Roman Syria Palestina province from 132 until the province was divided in 390, after which it was within the Byzantine Palestina Prima province. The Samaritan population dramatically decreased in the 6th century. The Byzantine Empire's bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts (mostly in 525 CE and 555 CE) brought mass death, displacement, and conversion to Christianity.

Sussman (Sussman Late, p. 171) writes, lamps of this type "were rather numerous in the town of Shomron/Samaria itself and the vicinity including Neapolis (Shekhem) and Silet edh-Dhar (a Samaritan settlement). The lamps were found within the vast region of Samaria, at sites along the coast on the west; abundant at Caesarea and [many other sites across Samaria]...The most remote site where a lamp of this type was found was Atara, 20 km North of Jerusalem."

Adler notes, "The lamp discus was broken after purchase, probably since a closed lamp did not receive impurity."

The type is mold made, biconvex and piriform with a round body and bow shaped nozzle.

Decorations on the type vary greatly. The lamp above is decorated with elements connected to the binding of Isaac by Abraham (Gen. 22). Some of the many different nozzle decorations include a temple facade, altar, menorah, amphora, vessel, bowl, musical instruments, agricultural tools, jewelry, palm tree, kalathos, grapes, flower, wheel, rosette, geometric pattern, floral patterns, and patterns of crossing diagonal and perpendicular lines. Some of the many different shoulder decorations include columns, geometric patterns, concentric circles, ladder patterns, daggers, leaves, branches, and rope bands. 

Handle types include star shaped (most common), pyramid shaped, knob, and rarely two knobs or horizontal loop.

The base is usually a ring, pellet in ring, double ring, or triple ring. Sometime the underside of the nozzle is decorated, for example with a circle, circles, or a branch.

The type shares elements with Adler type BN.3, Sussman type LR5 Beit Nattif Lamps.

The Samaritans

The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group named after and descended from ancient Semitic inhabitants of Samaria, since the Assyrian exile of the Israelites, according to 2 Kings 17 and first-century historian Josephus. Religiously, the Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian exile, preserved by those who remained behind. Their temple was built at Mount Gerizim in the middle of the 5th century BCE, and was destroyed under the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus of Judea in 110 BCE, although their descendants still worship among its ruins. The antagonism between Samaritans and Jews is important in understanding the Bible's New Testament stories of the "Samaritan woman at the well" and "Parable of the Good Samaritan". The modern Samaritans, however, see themselves as co-equals in inheritance to the Israelite lineage through Torah, as do the Jews. They are not antagonistic in modern times.

References