The Sources and Processing of Fuel for Lamps in the Han Dynasty

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Technology, Production, and Social Changes in Chinese Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Han dynasty was a prosperous period for lamps which used animal fat (or beeswax) and vegetable paste oil as fuel. While several articles used ORA to confirm the upper class's consumption of animal fat, we argue that commoners often used liquid oil. The pottery oil lamps in the shape of quotidian utensils were widely used for lighting. The only fuel for lamp recorded in Han dynasty literature was oil extracted from gourd seeds and hemp. Experiments simulating the conditions in the Han dynasty suggest that at that time the oil might have been extracted through water boiling and that the lamp wick might have been made of hemp fibers. During the Han dynasty, hemp and gourd were widely planted, the boiling method for extracting oil was easy to practise, the material for wick was readily accessible, pottery lamps were generally applicable, all of which made pottery lamps a good solution for lighting in the Han dynasty.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Technology, Production, and Social Changes in Chinese Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52439