Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Geometric and Keyhole Relief

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Description: 

Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Geometric and Keyhole Relief

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: fine clay with some inclusions. Munsell: 10 YR 8/2 pale brown
height 4.1 cm
length 9.1 cm
width 6.6 cm
hole diameter 2.3 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #160, PSU 042 (71)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This grey-brown almond-shaped lamp has raised geometric designs. It also has a raised keyhole design encircling the large fill hole and extending to and around the pierced wick hole. The handle is small and conical. Shape: Almond-shaped slipper lamp; ring base; sharply carinated body profile; large central fill hole; wick hole at pointed end of body; upright small conical handle opposite wick hole. Decoration: Raised ridge around fill hole, surrounded by another ridge that also extends to and encircles the wick hole; three parallel ridges terminating in raised dots on axis between holes. Relief decoration on shoulder consisting of (from handle to wick hole on each side) three concentric circles, seven-branched candlestick (menorah?), eight-armed star. Inscriptions: Mark on bottom, outside of base (near nozzle) (epsilon). Condition: Mostly intact; minor surface chips; heavily burnt around wick hole; encrustation; entire lamp stained and discolored.

Protocol: 
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center - Public Access
Community: 
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Category: 
Ceramics, Utilitarian Objects
Keywords: 
Lamp
Rights: 
Image reproduced with permission from Portland State University Middle East Studies Center. The institutions that house the specific Medieval Portland objects ultimately hold the rights to their image and reproduction; the images are provided here as a courtesy by those institutions and are for non-profit, educational use only.