Creative Commons Licensed Images of Lamps Designed to Look Like 'Ethiopian' Heads

Creative Commons Licensed (or Other Fair Use with Copyright) Images of Lamps Designed to Look Like ‘Ethiopian’ Heads

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This lamp style can be found throughout the Mediterranean. Most examples date to the late-Hellenistic & Roman periods. Please note:

‘Ethiopian’-head lamps are a type of iconographic ‘pun’ referring to the fact that the ancient Greek word ‘Aithiopian’ meant ‘blazing/burnt-faced person’ (because ancient Greeks thought dark skin color was due to sun exposure). Hence, many lamps were designed to be literal ‘shining/burnt-faced people.’ Their sometimes grotesque appearance is due to the typical lamp design: the hole at the head is where the oil was poured in; the hole at the mouth is where the wick was inserted (i.e., where the lamp flame was visible).
Though this site focuses on them to verify Greco-Roman antiquity’s diversity/exposure to diverse peoples & cultures, Ethiopians were not the only individuals whose ‘heads’ were made into lamp shapes! Oil lamps were daily necessities, often made en masse (of clay or bronze) using molds portraying people of all backgrounds, animals, mythological creatures, actor’s masks, etc. Clay lamps depicting famous gladiators, sold as cheap souvenirs at gladiator games, were also quite popular. Nothing suggests ‘Ethiopian’-head lamps were meant to demean ‘black’ individuals.

Roman terracotta oil lamp. Findspot & date unknown.

Citation: Image taken by Carole Raddato, May 31st, 2013 at the State Collection of Antiquities, Munich. (Accesssion no. unknown). CC BY-SA 2.0.

Composite image of a bronze oil lamp shaped as an ‘Ethiopian’s’ head, plus stand. From Pompeii, ca. 1st c. BCE-79 CE. Pompeian lamps are especially varied. In addition to people, they are shaped as theater masks, or animals (elephants, mice, horses, snails, bulls, dolphins, and bats). They are decorated with festoons (chains of ribbons, flowers, or leaves) & vegetal motifs.

Citation: Photos courtesy of Leah Himmelhoch, taken on March 5th, 2026 at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. (Inv. unknown). CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Bronze oil lamp shaped as the head of an ‘Ethiopian’ with tight curls. From Pompeii, ca. 1st c. BCE – 79 CE. Pompeian lamps are especially varied. In addition to people, they are shaped as theater masks, or animals (elephants, mice, horses, snails, bulls, dolphins, and bats). They are decorated with festoons (chains of ribbons, flowers, or leaves) & vegetal motifs.

Citation: Photo courtesy of Leah Himmelhoch, taken on March 5th, 2026 at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. (Inv. unknown). CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Bronze oil lamp with stand. The lamp proper is shaped as a balding(?) ‘Ethiopian’s’ head, possibly with an earring in his left ear. From Pompeii, ca. 1st c. BCE-79 CE. Pompeian lamps are especially varied. In addition to people, they are shaped as theater masks, or animals (elephants, mice, horses, snails, bulls, dolphins, and bats). They are decorated with festoons (chains of ribbons, flowers, or leaves) & vegetal motifs.

Citation: Photo courtesy of Leah Himmelhoch, taken on March 5th, 2026 at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. (Inv. unknown). CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Corroded bronze oil lamp shaped as an ‘Ethiopian’s’ wreathed head. From Pompeii, ca. 1st c. BCE – 79 CE. Pompeian lamps are especially varied. In addition to people, they are shaped as theater masks, or animals (elephants, mice, horses, snails, bulls, dolphins, and bats). They are decorated with festoons (chains of ribbons, flowers, or leaves) & vegetal motifs.

Citation: Photo courtesy of Leah Himmelhoch, taken on March 5th, 2026 at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. (Inv. unknown). CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Corroded bronze oil lamp shaped as an ‘Ethiopian’s’ head. From Pompeii, ca. 1st c. BCE – 79 CE. Pompeian lamps are especially varied. In addition to people, they are shaped as theater masks, or animals (elephants, mice, horses, snails, bulls, dolphins, and bats). They are decorated with festoons (chains of ribbons, flowers, or leaves) & vegetal motifs.

Citation: Photo courtesy of Leah Himmelhoch, taken on March 5th, 2026 at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. (Inv. unknown). CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Handle-ornament broken from a mold-made pottery lamp (covered with red-brown slip); decorated with a woman’s head. She is wearing a diadem & head-dress made of three palmettes. Roman, 1st c. CE. Made in Italy; found in Italy(?).

Citation: Image courtesy of the British Museum. Asset no. 949735001. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Mold-made, red-slip Egyptian oil-lamp shaped as an ‘Ethiopian’s’ head. Made of brown Nile silt fabric (with gold mica and white inclusions). Ptolemaic, ca. 1st c. BCE (probably). Made in the Nile Delta (at the Greek settlement of Naukratis?). Found in Naukratis, Egypt.

Citation: Image courtesy of © The Trustees of the British Museum. Asset no. 1049241001. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Mold-made lamp shaped as an ‘Ethiopian’ head; light buff clay covered with lustrous black slip. Roman period, ca. 50 BCE-200 CE. Made in Cyprus(?); find-spot unknown.

Citation: Image courtesy of the British Museum. Asset no. 1613912560. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Mold-made, brown-slip terracotta oil lamp. Its discus depicts a theater mask of a man of African heritage. It was made by Eucarpus, whose name is stamped on its base. Roman, ca. 75 CE -110 CE. Made in historic Gaul (modern Germany); found in Heddernheim (Frankfurt am Main), Germany. Top#1203852001

Citation: Image courtesy of the British Museum. Asset no. 1203852001. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Fragment from a mold-made pottery oil lamp; an actor’s mask of a man of African heritage. (The fragment is from the lamp’s discus, its decorated round center, see above). Roman, ca. 90-110 CE. Made in Italy; found in Capua (?), Italy. #1179047001

Citation: Image courtesy of the British Museum. Asset no. 1179047001. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Mold-made, chocolate-brown slip terracotta oil lamp with an ‘Ethiopian’ head in high relief. Roman, ca. 50 BCE-10 CE. Made in Italy; found at the Sanctuary of Juno Sospes (‘Juno Protector’) in Lanuvium (located in Lazio, Italy).

Citation: Image courtesy of the British Museum. Asset no. 1157069001. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.