CANDLESTICKS PRECURSORS?
CANDLESTICKS PRECURSORS?

Summary/Abstract: Three items of the Berezan collection (Pl. 39), though not recorded as lamps, stand out by their unusual features, viz. a central tube much stronger and thickwalled than on the standard « Stocklampen » ; above all, instead piercing the bottom of the bowl right through, it presents at the base two diametrically opposite openings, either circular or quadrangular holes for two of them, two similarly opposite notches for the third one ; on two of these pieces the upper edge of the central tube is encrusted with soot. Such peculiarities, even if they do not correspond at all with those of conventional oil lamps of Greek type, point to their interpretation as lighting devices, despite the fact that only one of them - B. 87-106 – seems clearly falling into the Greek period, viz the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 4th century BC . Considering the fact that the Northern Euxine was at that time a major native producer of solid fats such as tallow one can reasonably assume that we are faced here with tallow lamps instead of oil lamps and that their special features are intended for fitting in candles. As during the medieval period, these tallow candles were probably fitted with flax or hempen wicks.

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