Athenian terracotta lamps dominated the market in Greece from the 3rd to the first half of the 5th century AD. When political and economic changes took place in the society it had a strong impact on the trade networks in the 5th century, while at the same time the development of the Eastern Roman Empire created new links for the export and import of products. The movement of goods and people was intensified for political, military and religious reasons. Oil lamps were essential for households, for religious services, and also to lighten meeting places, newly built churches and monasteries. As ancient temples were closed and Christianity prevailed, a new market was created for lamp workshops for new important customers: church officials and pilgrims to holy places.

This paper analyzes in detail what methods the Athenian lamp producers used in their efforts to keep their trade contacts and market at a time when North African and Asia Minor products became more popular in the Eastern Mediterranean towards the end of the 5th century. Another aspect of the article deals with the imitation of imported lamps during this period.

This paper explores how Neoplatonists and Christians experienced and interpreted works of art, and how views on artists and individual works of art, such as Pheidias' Zeus in Olympia, were expressed by the representatives of traditional Greco-Roman religions and Christians. The way the value of a work of art was expressed in Greco-Roman literature is compared with the comments and opinions of Neoplatonists and Christian authors, which show that art and its appreciation and function are closely connected to the relationship to God in ancient sources. The ideal of beauty took its place to enrich also the Christian view of aesthetics and enhanced the development of both Greco-Roman and Christian art.

The aim of this study has been to analyse the decorative programme of the House of Caecilius Iucundus in Pompeii in detail, to reveal how mythic, public and private memory was utilised to create a local identity for the family of the argentarius L. Caecilius Iucundus. In a Roman house, a paterfamilias wished to signal piety towards the gods, to display his literacy and cultural background, as well as the social and genealogical status of the family, to visitors. In this house, the main public axis, visible from the fauces through the atrium, the tablinum and the peristyle, was complemented by private axes, the most important one from the monumental triclinium through the peristyle garden, accessible only for the family members and private guests. There are images, inscriptions and objects placed along these two axes that complement each other, provide similarities and contrasts, as well as associations to the Trojan War, with Homer’s epic, Greek drama and Roman literature, and with the family’s history and the history of Pompeii itself. Important aspects of the Roman culture connected with official life, such as virtus and dignitas, are emphasized in the decoration of the atrium area, the public area of the house. Aspects that can be connected with the private sphere, such as male and female beauty, erotic love and happiness, are instead preferred in the peristyle area, in the private area of the house.That life has two contrasting aspects, otium and negotium, is the main message provided by the decorative programme, and the one that L. Caecilius Iucundus wished to mediate to his clients, friends and family members

Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Uppsala, published Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus in Rome in 1555. This encyclopedic, illustrated work on the customs and history of the Nordic people became popular and it was translated into several European languages during the following decades. In this article, a special focus is given to the various instances where Olaus Magnus comments on fire, light and lighting devices in Scandinavia, such as the symbolic meaning of fire and light at wedding ceremonies, lighting the guild feasts, light in Christian processions and in the church, lighting in wintertime, light and fire in summertime, fire and lights during warfare, birds and lights, and fishing by means of fire.

Finally, the evidence provided by Olaus Magnus is compared with other sources, and what archival sources reveal about the use of light and lighting devices at Häme and Turku Castles in Finland during the same period.