Roman Department

In the plethora of finds kept in the antique collection of the Museum of Srem in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, there
are more than 800 whole or fragmented Roman pottery oil lamps. Among them, in this article special attention is
drawn to a fragmented, damaged lamp (inv.No A/4683) in the form of a human figure with traces of huge phallus
that is lying on his back. Nozzle of a lamp is in a form of another huge phallus. The lamp was found at the site of
Sirmium no 49, in the area of residential buildings in the southern part of the city, unfortunately exact cultural stratum
is not identified because find was not actually excavated but brought to the Museum by a private person who by his
own admission dug the lamp from black, oily earth with some grime. The represented figure is most likely to be a
rural deity Priapus. This paper will also present two lamps from the Museum of Slavonia Osijek’s depot, with unique
figuration in the form of a grotesque human face. The lamps came into the Museum over a hundred years apart-one
was donated by C. F. Nuber 1 , with the information about the location of the find (Mursa area) without archeological
context, while the other one was found at the rescued archeological survey of Osijek-Silos-Corner of Huttlerova and
Frankopanska Street, dated not before the second quarter of the second century based on the Emperor Hadrian’s
dupondius. Interestingly, both lamps were made from the same mould, the latter being of earlier date.