Lamp Production in West Stockwell Street, Colchester

Abstract

Artificial illumination is one of the most taken-for-granted features of modern life but in antiquity the availability and use of lamps was much more restricted. In Roman Britain, lighting equipment was rare and the use of ceramic lamps appears to have been largely limited to military sites and large urban centres. The so-called 'lamp factory' in Colchester is not the only site in Roman Britain to have revealed evidence for lamp production1 but it is probably the most outstanding. The extensive evidence for Roman lamp production near modern West Stockwell Street in Colchester takes the form of excavated structures2 as well as of a large and closely dated assemblage of lamps and moulds. This paper aims to discuss both the structural evidence for a lamp workshop and the unusual lamp assemblage found in West Stockwell Street. Typological analysis reveals a number of unusual features and the iconographic range of the West Stockwell Street material is also unique in Roman Britain. The assemblage is of particular importance as it can be dated to just before the Boudiccan revolt. It is also hoped to place the Colchester 'lamp factory' and its output into their wider Romano-British context.