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MOB 8. Mobile artifact. (Bronze candelabrum).
Present location: Naval Museum, Capo Colonna.
285
Description: The candelabrum is made of a tall adjustable shaft, square in section. Its
height can be raised or lowered with the use of a special bronze dowel inserted in the
notches visible along the shaft. The dowel was found still attached to the stand’s base with
a little bronze chain. A tripod base decorated with lion’s paws supports the shaft, on which
top a small calyx krater was made to hold the oil-lamp.
This type of candelabrum is common in Roman times: in Pompeii and Herculaneum
many similar items have been found, 380 as well as in eastern Thrace. 381 Similar candelabra
are also visible at the Louvre, 382 at the Archaeological Museum of Naples, 383 in the
Dumbarton Oaks Collection in Washington, D.C., 384 and in the Mahdia shipwreck. 385
Origin: Unknown.
Geographical Distribution: Widespread in the east and west of the Roman empire.
Date range: The candelabra from Pompeii date to the first century A.D., as well as the
exemplar from eastern Thrace.
otes: Discovered in 1983, during the Aquarius’ excavation
Bibliography: Unpublished.
380 De Spagnolis and De Carolis 1988, 26, n. 8; 56, n.19; 67, n.29; 141, n. 84-5.
381 Atasoy 2005, 74, n. 128.
382 Ridder 1915, 153-4, plate 113, n. 3164, 3170.
383 Lamb 1969, 239, plate 84.
384 Jones 1956, 43, n. 24, table 16.c.
385 Baratte 2004, 607-28.