A device for producing illumination, consisting originally of a vessel containing a wick soaked in combustible material. The lamp was invented by at least 70,000 BC and was originally a hollowed-out rock filled with an absorbent material soaked with animal fat and lit. Simple saucers of stone or chalk for this purpose go back to the Upper Palaeolithic. In pottery, the use can rarely be proved unless a special spout or pinched lip was provided to support the wick, or signs of burning have survived at the rim. In ancient Greece, lamps did not begin to appear until the 7th century BC, when they replaced torches and braziers.