Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Keyhole and Rosette Relief

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Description: 

Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Keyhole and Rosette Relief

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: fine with some inclusions. hole diameter: 2.4 cm. Munsell: 5 YR 6/4 light reddish brown
height 4.1 cm
length 9.7 cm
width 7.3 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #166, PSU 017bis (31)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This fictile lamp was molded in an almond shape. It has a relief keyhole design encircling the large, open fill hole and extending to the pierced nozzle. The handle is pyramidal and sits on the edge of the rim. Shape: Almond-shaped slipper lamp with almond-shaped ring base; ridge extending from point of almond to point of body (askew) on underside; sharply carinated body profile; large central fill hole; wick hole at pointed end of body; upright pyramidal handle at broad end. Decoration: Traces of buff slip. Relief decoration on top consisting of raised lip around fill hole, surrounded by another raised keyhole-shaped ridge that extends to the wick hole; traces of possible cable pattern on nozzle axis; two circles near handle with dots and spirals within them; circle rosettes on either side of fill hole; two more circles with dots and spirals with in near nozzle; other small spirals and concentric circles in fields between. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Intact; burnt and broken around wick hole; gouge on underside; minor surface chips; very worn.

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.