Lamp

A vessel to hold liquid fuel to feed a light-giving flame. Simple saucers of stone or chalk for this purpose go back to the Upper Palaeolithic. In pottery, the use can rarely be proved unless a special spout or pinched lip was provided to support the wick, or signs of burning have survived at the rim. Roman pottery lamps have a distinctive shape, being squat vessels with a spout and handle and are often found in burials. A Roman lamp was found in a cremation burial at Wellwick Farm in Wendover. A nineteenth century lamp was found in a metal-detecting survey on a tip on Buckingham ring-road.