Late antique clay lamp with Nebuchadnezzar. North Africa, 4th - 5th century A.D. Type Hayes II. L 14.5cm, H 5.5cm. Made of light red clay with light red coating. Cone-shaped handle, ovoid body, rounded snout with firing hole, two filler holes in the mirror. Nebuchadnezzar enthroned on the left on the mirror, his bust on a column in front of him, three men being led by a soldier from the right. On the shoulder decoration in the form of alternating ivy leaves and palm branches. Cf. Late Antiquity between Paganism and Christianity. Exhibition catalog Staatl. Münzsammlung München (1989) p. 125f. Cat.65: Only the youths are depicted here. It depicts the prehistory of the episode of the three youths in the fiery furnace from the Old Testament book of Daniel (Daniel 3:13-18): The enthroned Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, demands that the three youths with Phrygian caps worship his gilded bust, which is placed on a pillar in front of him. The young men are the three Hebrews Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were governors in Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. As they refused to worship the image, they were thrown into a fiery furnace, where they remained unharmed, protected by an angel. Handle replaced. Provenance: From the West German private collection H.H., acquired before 1985 from the West German collection; ex Gorny & Mosch auction 300, 12.12.2023, lot 147.