One of the most interesting artifacts
that we've discovered at Jamestown
is also one of the oldest historic artifacts.
This is a 1st century AD Roman oil lamp.
It's a firmalampen, a type of lamp that was made by a factory group.
And it was made in Gaul 
and it was made in a two-piece mold.
The small size and the gray slip
and the fact that this lamp was never used
indicates to us that it was
probably found in a Roman soldier's burial
and it served an apotropaic purpose.
This was found in a feature that we have
identified as a kitchen.
The cellar of the feature was constructed in 1607 and
it served as a workshop
and when Delaware arrived in 1610
it was refashioned into a kitchen with 
double ovens.
The cellar was abandoned in the 1610's
and this particular item was found in a number of pieces
in the upper layers of the cellar,
so deposited somewhere before about 1617.
It's nearly complete through mending but unfortunately we didn't find its little handle.
The item probably came to Virginia with an antiquarian.
Antiquarianism began in the 1500s in England
—that's an interest in the past—
and it possibly came here as an object to place in a "cabinet of curiosity."
Gentlemen were assembling cabinets of curiosity 
during this era
to display their wealth, 
their knowledge, and their travels.
