The oil lamp (Fig. 2) is a ‘Samaritan’-type lamp, which was in use from the Late Roman until the Early Islamic periods. Such lamps have a distinct shape, style and decoration. They have been found in a region historically known to have had a Samaritan population, but other ethnic groups may have used the same lamps (Sussman 2002:339). Identified as Type S2, the lamp has a narrow ‘channel’ along the nozzle, a blocked discus that was broken after firing, a wing-shaped handle and a ring base. Geometric patterns are the predominant form of decoration on lamps of this type (Sussman 2002:342, Fig. 1:5). Such lamps have been found at sites along the northern coast of Israel: Nahariyya, Tel Shiqmona, Ha-Bonim, Caesarea, Hadera and Apollonia (Sussman 2002:340, map).
Excavations at Apollonia (East), to the northeast of Sidna ‘Ali, exposed a large refuse pit from the late Byzantine period, which yielded over 200 intact Samaritan lamps (Haddad et al. 2015). The lamp discovered at Sidna ʻAli resembles those found in the refuse pit, and it can thus be assumed that they date from the same period.