H18.100

Native lamp, baked clay. Type of ancient Roman lamp. To burn oil for illuminating/ "'Candle-nuts were used for light in all the islands in which the tree would grow. The nuts were baked in an earth oven, cracked, and the kernals threaded upon the mid-rib of a coconut leaflet. When lighted they would burn with a smokey, flickering flame. Each nut left a large cinder which had to be knocked off as the nut below cought fire, and the light required constant tending. (In Hawaii and, rarely, in the Society group, small stone lamps were used. They were filled with candle-nut oil, and had one or two floating wicks of tapa.)' [Linton, 1926, p. 82]" (gray notebook) "Native lamp. Baked clay; type of ancient Roman lamp. 6.625" x 3.75" Palau Island, Micronesia." (warehouse card) "Palauan lamp, or `golbidel'. Undecorated variety, others might be decorated with human figures. Burned coconut oil. Per Kramer, diffused into Palau from the Philippines. Reference: Kramer, Augustin. 1917-29. Palau. Ergebnisse der Sudsee Expedition 1908-1910. G. Thilenius (ed.). II, Band 3, 3. Hamburg: L. Friederichsen & Co. Pp. 136-137, Tafel 10." (William Alkire, 2/95)

Used: lighting