Lighting in the past

In the last few months I have been studying the lamp decoration on ancient grave stones from the 15th century. There are no physical lamps similar to these decorations that have been passed down to our present time, there are not even any archaeological finds that can be believed to be fragments of lamps whose shapes were once carved to become ornaments on the grave stones. But I was very aware that the lamps that were younger and later than that were still stored in the provincial museum.

Yesterday I thought why don't I go to the museum and take pictures of the collection of ancient lamps for my post on visual shots. Yes, so I went to Aceh Museum, a local museum, to see if there were oil lamps from the past on display there. It turns out there are several.

The lamps are displayed in an exhibition room in a building that imitates a traditional Acehnese house. There are several room lighting devices from the past on display.

One is a European style candle holder. There is no information about where it came from and when it was collected. Perhaps it originated about a century ago during the Dutch East Indies government in Indonesia.

When entering another room, a door with decorative carvings fills the panel. The artist's habit here, I think, is that it is difficult to leave empty spaces without decoration.

An ancient lamp in Acehnese style. Here, it is called "panyot". Lighted with oil and wick. Sometimes there are several wicks there.

A lantern hangs from the ceiling in a vintage bedroom display. It's a unique oil lantern. Visitors are not allowed to enter the room, and can only see it through a glass wall.

In the space outside that room, two large lamps hung from chains on the roof of the house made of palm leaves.

In the room opposite the previous room, there is another room which displays the room for the bride and groom at the wedding party. There was a lamp there which to me looked very interesting placed on the floor of the room.