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symbols for the homeowner.” 216
If the simple bronze oil lamps found at Pompeii and Herculaneum, without
vertical stands, were “uncommon objects, expensive, rarely belonging to not well-off
individuals […] sometimes conserved in a strongbox,” 217 it is easy to appreciate the value
of the tall, vertical stand from Punta Scifo A. In Fabius Rufus’s residence, one of the
richest houses in Pompeii, six bronze oil lamps were discovered – the highest number
ever found in one single locale. 218 It is impossible to know if more oil lamp stands were
carried on board the Punta Scifo A ship, and were looted in the years following the
discovery, but this possibility must be considered: on the Mahdia shipwreck there were at
least five bronze candelabra aboard. 219
Finally, a small lead statuette represents the myth of Heracles capturing the hind
(MOB 9). The three-dimensional group is arranged on a flat base with one bronze nail in
place and a hole for a second, indicating that it was meant to be nailed to some wooden
surface. A thin lead strip connecting Heracles’ back to the pedestal keeps the statuette
upright, and a cavity inside the hind’s body is probably for a protruding piece of wood
that had to fit there. It follows that this group was made to be seen only from the front,
and the nails were hammered into a piece of wood. The use of lead, which is extremely
resistant to marine corrosion, suggests that this artifact may have decorated a part of the
ship.
216 De’ Spagnolis and De Carolis 1997, 91.
217 De’ Spagnolis and De Carolis 1988, 17.
218 De’ Spagnolis and De Carolis 1988, 17.
219 Baratte 1994, 607.
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