Oil lamp

The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although their use is less common in modern times.

Sources of fuel for oil lamps include a wide variety of plants such as nuts (walnuts, almonds and kukui) and seeds (sesame, olive, castor, or flax).

Also widely used were animal fats (butter, ghee, fish oil, shark liver, whale blubber, or seal).

Burning fluid became more expensive during the Civil War when a federal tax on alcohol was reenacted.

The following are the main external parts of a terra-cotta lamp: Lamps can be categorized based on different criteria, including material (clay, silver, bronze, gold, stone, slip), shape, structure, design, and imagery (e.g. symbolic, religious, mythological, erotic, battles, hunting).

The oil lamp and its light also became important ritualistic articles with the further development of Jewish culture and religion.

Oil lamps are also referenced as a symbol throughout the New Testament, including in the Parable of the Ten Virgins.

There is usually a piece of metal that forms the back of the lamp, which has a picture of a Hindu deity embossed on it.

In South India, there are a few types of oil lamps that are common in temples and traditional rituals.

The oldest stone-oil lamp was found in Lascaux in 1940 in a cave that was inhabited 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

[4][5] Some archaeologists claim that the first shell-lamps existed more than 6,000 years ago (Neolithic, Later Stone Age, c. 8500–4500 BC).

It is generally agreed that the evolution of handmade lamps moved from bowl-shaped to saucer-shaped, then from saucer with a nozzle, to a closed bowl with a spout.

[citation needed] The first manufactured red pottery oil lamps appeared in the Chalcolithic.

Bronze Age lamps were simple wheel-made bowls with a slight pinch on four sides for the wick.

Early in this period the pinch is shallow, while later on it becomes more prominent and the mouth protrudes from the lamp's body.

During the Iron Age, lamp rims become wider and flatter, with a deeper and higher spout.

The qulliq (seal-oil lamp) provided warmth and light in the harsh Arctic environment where there was no wood and where the sparse population relied almost entirely on seal oil.

[10] Persian lamps were large, with thin sides and a deep pinch that flattens the mouth and makes it protrude outward.

The earliest Chinese oil lamps are dated from the Warring States period (481–221 BC).

The largest oil lamp excavated so far is one discovered in a 4th-century tomb located in modern Pingshan, Hebei.

[11][12] Production of oil lamps shifted to Italy as the main source of supply in the Early Roman era.

Most are of the characteristic "Imperial Type"—round, with nozzles of different forms (volute, semi-volute, U-shaped), a closed body, a central disk decorated with reliefs and a filling hole.

The decoration on lamps of this transition period changed from crosses, animals, human likenesses, birds, or fish to plain linear, geometric, and raised-dot patterns.

[15] In Vedic times, fire was kept alive in every household in some form and carried with oneself while migrating to new locations.

During marriages, spinsters of the household stand behind the bride and groom, holding an oil lamp to ward off evil.

The presence of an oil lamp is an important aspect of ritual worship (the Shodashopachar Puja) offered to a deity.

This reverence for the deep is based on the symbolism of the journey from darkness and ignorance to light and the knowledge of the ultimate reality – "tamaso ma jyotirgamaya".

Lamps were also created in the shape of the many emblems of gods, like conch shells or lotuses.

Birds such as swans, peacocks, or parrots, and animals like snakes, lions, elephants and horses were also favorites when decorating a lamp.

In some of the South Indian temples, raised brass lamp towers called Kamba Vilakku can be seen.