This lamp has been hollow cast and decorated with a seated, cross-legged figure dressed in an unbelted long tunic with a slit neck.

The figure’s head and hands, along with the base of the lamp, were separately moulded and do not survive. The handle, which was originally positioned at the base of the figure’s back, has broken away.

Such lamps are exceptionally rare outside major Roman urban and military contexts. This example is undoubtedly an import from the Mediterranean, most likely produced in one of the specialist lamp-making workshops active in the Naples region, or in major centres such as Corinth or Alexandria. These were renowned for their high-quality mould-made terracotta lamps.

The closest parallels for the style of its plastic decoration come from a series of clay lamps made in Alexandria. These date to the 1st century AD and depict a variety of ‘genre’ figures inspired by everyday life in the city, including comic actors, schoolmasters, and scribes.

The identity of the figure is uncertain. They may have been instantly recognisable by the attributes once held in its now-missing hands, and perhaps also its facial features. It has been suggested that the figure may represent Silenus, a companion to the Roman god Bacchus. The lamp may have been an antique or heirloom by the time it was finally lost, deposited or discarded.