Dumbarton Oaks Papers is an annual journal of scholarly articles on Byzantine topics. Many of the articles are based upon presentations made at the Byzantine conferences hosted by Dumbarton Oaks. Numerous maps, tables, illustrations, and color plates provide supplementary information.

Dumbarton Oaks Papers 59 includes papers from a colloquium on Byzantine glass, guest edited by David Whitehouse of the Corning Museum of Glass. Other articles feature a discussion of zodiac cycles in ancient Palestinian synagogues, a study of early Christians' responses to the spectacles of fifth-century Carthage, and an analysis of scientific and literary sources pertaining to the mysterious cloud that darkened the sky for about a year in 536, to determine what, if any, immediate effects it had. A fieldwork report on the ongoing excavations at the Amorium project is also featured.

This book stands alone as the first general survey of lighting in Byzantium. Although relatively well known by specialists, Byzantine lighting devices have not been treated independently, but rather presented and discussed in connection with other Byzantine minor arts. The first part of the book discusses the technology and types of lighting devices and explains their decorative symbolism and social function. The second half illustrates this narrative by drawing on a Dumbarton Oaks exhibition, “Lighting in Early Byzantium,” which presented to the public some of the finest surviving late Roman and early Byzantine lighting devices. Some of these are now published for the first time.