Ca. 600 AD.A beautiful terracotta oil lamp featuring a recessed discus with two parallel filling holes and adorned with a Chi-Rho; shoulders embellished with lattice design, a long nozzle, and a round mouth. Chi-Rho is one of the earliest forms of Christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters — chi and rho. During the Roman Empire, a lamp was originally called a 'lychnus' with the oldest Roman lamps dating back to the third century BC. It is thought that the Romans took the idea for lamps from the Greek colonies of Southern Italy.Size: L:55mm / W:135mm ; 170gProvenance: Property of a London Ancient Art gallery, acquired on the European Art Market; Ex. collection PR, southern Germany, ca. 1970 - mid 1990s.