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Lighting the Way Through History

The evolution of ancient oil lamps

By Varda Sussman

043
No one knows who invented the oil lamp or exactly when it happened. Did this idea of how to control fire evolve slowly, or was it a sudden inspiration that entered the mind of an ordinary person who then continued to lead a quite ordinary life?

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Footnotes

1.

Multiple wick-rests are known since the MB I–MB II period in lamps used for cultic purposes.

2.

Carol L. Meyers, “Was There a Seven-Branched Lampstand in Solomon’s Temple?” BAR 05:05.

3.

Recent archaeological evidence suggests that their first appearance was somewhat later, after the reign of Herod.

4.

The strict prohibition of making a replica of the menorah appears in the Babylonian Talmud (Menahot 28b; Rosh Hashana 24a): “A man may not make a house after the design of the Temple … or a menorah after that of the menorah (in the Temple). He may, however, make one with five, six or eight (branches) but with seven he may not make one.”