camp of Haltern with a procession-like frieze of women (fig. 14.3). It only makes
sense when compared to the original scene they were taken from: it is an Erinye
(Fury) from the scene of Minerva voting in favor of Orestes (von Schnurbein 1974;
Kühlborn 1988: 594 –5, no. 435). There are many other motifs which testify to this
phenomenon (e.g. Klumbach 1961); nevertheless, they do also give evidence of the
rich repertoire which was at the potter’s disposal.
This is even more astonishing when one takes into account the restricted space
available on the disks of the lamps. At first sight there is an overwhelming abund-
ance of decorative topics which do not seem to have been selected to match the
lamp’s purpose. At Pergamum, for instance, of the 11 lamps with relief disks found
in the house of Attalos Paterklianos, which was renovated aroundad 200, six had
been placed in a shrine for Cybele(?); but none of the reliefs makes allusion either
to the goddess or to cult activities (Heimerl 2001: 85, 218). On the other hand, it
is certainly not surprising that gladiator and sex scenes are preferred topics in milit-
ary camps (e.g. Leibundgut 1977: 190 –1). One would not, however, have expected
them to be much more frequent on lamps found in the Idaean cult cave in Crete
than representations of Zeus (Sapouna 1998: 120 –2, 158 –9). Such inconsistencies196 Annemarie Kaufmann-HeinimannFigure 14.3 Lamp from the early Roman military camp of Haltern (Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Germany) (Haltern, Römisch-Germanisches Museum): Minerva voting in favor of Orestes,
with a Fury present to the left. The type of the Fury, repeated and lined up in a row, has
been reused in a mold for relief-decorated bowls where the original meaning cannot be
made out (photo: Haltern, Römisch Germanisches Museum).ACTC14 26/04/2007 09:38 AM Page 196