High School student finds oil lamp at Late Roman fort

CERAMICS: Student discovers a unique 1,600-year-old oil lamp used by Roman soldiers. The lamp Yonatan found is identical to one discovered in the same place 90 years ago by the late Reform rabbi and archaeologist Dr. Nelson Gluec (Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post).

“We know that between the Nabataean-Roman town of Mamshit and the copper mines of Feinan (biblical Punon) in the Central Arava – not far from present-day Moshav ‘En Yahav, a trade route was in use in the 4th-6th centuries CE. In order to secure the shipments of copper and possibly even gold from the mines, a series of forts were built between the head of the Scorpions Ascent and Mezad Hazeva, and Mezad Tsafir [where the lamp was found] was one of these. Mounted patrols guarded the important road. It is easy to imagine the lamp lighting up the darkness in the lonely, isolated fort manned by Roman soldiers, said Erickson-Gini.

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