Representaciones iconográficas en lucernas romanas de la Región de Murcia

Abstract

With the systematic employment, from the first century on, of moulds for the production of ceramic oil lamps, the plates were without decoration but slowly they became decorated with a rich and various repertoire of iconography. This paper presents a series of decorated lampplates from different parts of Murcia but mainly from Carthago Nova, and which belong to the first to fifth centuries AD. We have divided the material into eigth groups, according the kind of iconography: I. Animal motifs. II. Allegories of gods and myths. III. Gladiatorial games. IV. Scenes from everyday life. V. Erotic motifs. VI. Geometrical and vegetative motifs. VII. Various motifs difficult to classify. VIII. Motifs of christian symbols. Finally, there is a catalogue of all the pieces studied in which is shown their origins and where they are to be found now with a statistical analysis and a bibliographical index.