Late North-African sigillata lamps: curatorship of museum collections and archaeological research

Abstract

The Late African North African lamps of Terra Sigillata (African Red Slip Ware-ARS) are a category of objects which, alongside tableware, have acquired particular importance, not only for the volume of their production, but for their economic and commercial, iconographic and historical-religious implications. This article aims to present the development of fundamental research for the knowledge about the production and circulation of the ARS and in particular the lamps, taking as examples rich dialogues between the curatorial studies of museological collections and archaeological research that point the limits of the classical models of study of African ceramics and perform accurate reviews of dates, origins and contents of vessels, especially with archaeometric methods.