religious functions, including funerals. Among Jews in the
Roman Empire, lamps were used in observance of the Sab-
bath, some even equipped with an additional oil reservoir to
keep the light burning for the time required. A large cande-
labrum from the Great Temple in Jerusalem appears in relief
on the Arch of Titus in Rome, a monument that celebrates the
Roman victory over the Jewish revolt in 70 c.e. Similarly, the
early Christians decorated their lamps with early symbols of
their faith, such as the Chi-Rho.
Paradoxically, the widespread use of artifi cial lighting
presented some considerable problems. Th e materials used
as fuel (fats and oils) were also sources of food, and indi-
viduals—especially the poor—would have had to weigh the
need for calories against the need for light. Further, open
fl ames dramatically increased the risk of fi re, and large,
oft en rambling and jerry-built neighborhoods in cities like
Rome would have been particularly vulnerable to accidents
or negligence.
Although artifi cial illumination was used in a variety of
contexts in the Roman world, the technologies for generating
light remained fairly static. It was the Roman genius for pro-
duction, distribution, and adaptation, however, that permit-
ted the widespread and eff ective use of artifi cial illumination
in various capacities among the populace.
THE AMERICAS
BY MICHAEL ALLEN HOLMES
Illumination was obtained in the ancient Americas as among
the most ancient of all civilizations: with fi re. With wood
gathered from forests, which were especially ubiquitous in
Mesoamerica, small fi res could be made both for cooking
purposes and for light by which to see at night. Th e more
elaborate houses of the elite oft en included fi replaces. Espe-
cially at ceremonial sites, torches would be used. While in-
cense made f rom copa l, a tropica l tree resin, was oft en burned
at these ceremonial sites, its function was more aromatic than
visual.
See also architecture; art; calendars and clocks;
ceramics and pottery; crafts; empires and dynas-
ties; food and diet; inventions; metallurgy; military;
mining, quarrying, and salt making; money and coin-
age; religion and cosmology; sacred sites; seafaring
and navigation; social organization; trade and ex-
change.
FURTHER READING
Sean Anderson, Flames of Devotion: Oil Lamps from South and
Southeast Asia and the Himalayas (Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 2006).
Donald M. Bailey, Greek and Roman Pottery Lamps (London: Trust-
ees of the British Museum, 1963).
Donald M. Bailey, Greek, Hellenistic, and Early Roman Pottery
Lamps (London: British Museum Publications, 1975).
Stephen Bertman, Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (New
York: Facts On File, 2003).
Hella Eckardt, Illuminating Roman Britain (Montagnac, France: M.
Mergoil, 2002).
W. V. Harris, “Roman Terracotta Lamps: Th e Organization of an
Industry,” Journal of Roman Studies 70 (1980): 126–145.
J. W. Hayes, Ancient Lamps in the Royal Ontario Museum. Vo l. 1,
Greek and Roman Clay Lamps: A Catalogue (Toronto: Royal
Ontario Museum, 1980).
“Oil Lamps from the Holy Land from the Adler Collection.” Avail-
able online. URL: http://www.steve-adler.com/OilLampsMain.
htm. Downloaded on November 14, 2006.
Ed Semmelroth, “A History of Fire and Its Uses.” Available online.
URL: http://hearth.com/what/historyfi re.html. Downloaded
on January 30, 2007.▶ inventions
introduction
Th e topic of inventions among ancient peoples is a diffi cult
one to compass, for the modern understanding of invention
might not always be applicable to the ancient world. Th rough-
out the Industrial Revolution in the West and the technologi-
cal revolutions of the 20th and 21st centuries, inventions took
the form of objects that were fundamentally new and that
changed the way people thought about their world. While
many of these inventions built on the scientifi c and techno-
logical discoveries of others, they themselves were a major
leap forward as people learned to harness what they knew
about the natural world.
In studying the ancient world it would be almost impos-
sible to date the invention of a tool, process, or technique to
a certain time and place. Rather, the world’s ancient peoples
took part in a process of discovering the principles of their
world over a period of millennia, each new generation mak-
ing tiny advances on the discoveries of the previous genera-
tion. Invention, then, was more of a process of uncovering the
secrets of the physical world, fi nding ways to adapt human
activities to the demands of the nature world, and discover-
ing ways to modify that natural world to promote the comfort
and security of people. Another complication in tracing an-
cient inventions is that the peoples of the world were explor-
ing and innovating in isolation from one another. Th us, while
the ancient Egyptians were discovering the uses of papyrus,
particularly as paper, so the ancient Americans were also dis-
covering an early form of paper. Who “invented” paper? No
one can really know, especially since paper has so little dura-
bility over many centuries.
Th e world’s earliest inventors were no doubt those anon-
ymous hunter-gatherers who devised tools to make their
hunts more successful: a type of stone that worked better as a
spear point, then a way to slice or pound the stone to make it
sharper, then a better way of affi xing the point to the shaft of
a spear, and fi nally a way to give the spear better balance and592 illumination: The Americas