The project focuses in particular on the question of documentation methods:

Drawing the lamps—especially depicting them in the curved image mirror—is extremely challenging by hand, so that even experienced draftsmen find it difficult to produce accurate and precise documentation. At this point, the project provided an opportunity to examine the extent to which digital processes such as 3D modeling and digital redrawing can usefully supplement or even replace manual processing.
Funding from the Ruhr University Bochum's Research-Based Learning program made it possible to implement this concept in the project “A light bulb moment! From the dusty depot to the digital spotlight – new insights into the recording of ancient lamps.”
Together with five students, the lamp recording began as part of an internship in the summer semester of 2023 in a research collaboration on site. A total of 70 oil lamp fragments were documented in the first year. The focus of the work was on manual drawing and photographic recording for the later creation of 3D models (Figs. 3a and 3b). The material consists mainly of oil lamps with figurative discs and heart-shaped spouts (Loeschcke VIII), supplemented by a few examples of so-called Cretan lamp types.
Back in Bochum, the students acquired the basics of ancient lychnology as part of an exercise in the winter semester 2023/24, analyzed comparable lamp contexts with a large number of specimens in order to identify their function (production context, trade context, storage context, cultic context, sacred deposition, disposal) and learned how to create initial 3D models based on photographic images of the objects using Metashape (Fig. 4a). They also tried their hand at digitizing the hand drawings of the lamps made on site using the Vectorworks program (Fig. 4b).

Results: new method, e-learning integration, experimental archaeology, and collective presentations

By testing various combinations, a new documentation method was developed. Manual drawing continued to prove indispensable: the trained eye can detect fine reliefs and subtle surface details that are not always clearly visible in photographs or digital images. At the same time, it became apparent that hand-drawn technical drawings have their limitations due to perspective distortions—especially when manufacturing characteristics or matrix differences need to be captured precisely.

The evaluation therefore led to a hybrid approach: combining both methods offers the highest degree of accuracy. The mutual correction and supplementation of both methods proved to be particularly valuable from both a didactic and scientific point of view.
Based on these findings, we formulated a standardized procedure. The work is currently continuing: in the 2025 summer campaign, a further 143 oil lamp fragments were recorded. These pieces were inventoried, photographed, and drawn; then the detailed manual and digital 3D documentation began.

The digitized drawings and 3D models were then integrated into digital archaeological teaching. On this basis, additional learning units were created, which are now permanently available in the e-learning program of Archaeological Sciences (RUBeA – eLearning) (Fig. 5a).
In addition, an experimental archaeological approach was tested: In the teaching workshop at the Bochum Institute, we began to recreate and pottery the Cretan picture lamps in order to gain a direct understanding of the manufacturing processes and technical features of their form (Fig. 5b and c).

As part of the Classical Archaeology departmental colloquium, the students finally presented the research project and their initial findings to an internal audience. Another lecture is planned at the Thomas Morus Academy in Bensberg, so that the findings can be made available to a wider scientific audience. This public presentation also gave students the opportunity to gain practical experience in the field of science communication and to critically reflect on their methodological approach.

During the Classical Archaeology Colloquium in the winter semester of 2023/2024, the research project and the initial findings of Dr. Anna Bertelli and the participating students were finally presented at the Institute of Archaeological Sciences. Another lecture is planned for April 2024 at the Thomas Morus Academy in Bensberg, so that the findings can be made available to a wider scientific audience.