Hanging Lamp

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Hanging Lamp
Rome; early Christian; 5th c.

The fish-shaped lamp was made in a mould and afterwards finished. The head of a smaller fish, whose open mouth serves for the wick, peeps out of the mouth of the bigger one. The back fins have holes by which the lamp was hung on a chain. The body of the fish is covered in scales and both sides of the body bear the Christogram.