Frog Style Terracotta Lamp with Wide Nozzle

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Description: 

Frog Style Terracotta Lamp with Wide Nozzle    

Early 3rd century CE

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: medium coarse clay with some inclusions. Munsell: 2.5 Y 8/2 pale yellow
height 3.3 cm
length 7.6 cm
width 6.8 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #79, PSU 096 (122)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This grey lamp is of the frog shape, being ovoid of body and having a short wide nozzle projecting from one side. The decoration consists of two relief humanoid figures crouched, one on either side of the large pierced fill hole. Shape: Round bodied lamp with short, tapering nozzle, rounded at termination, flat base; central fill hole set off by circular ridge. Decoration: Relief decoration on top consisting of heraldic composition on either side of fill hole -- two crouching humanoid figures with grotesque features, bodies in profile, faces frontal; each raises one arm toward small raised circle at juncture of nozzle and body; wick hole set off by incised curved line. Decoration: Potter's mark on bottom. Condition: Nearly intact; chip on bottom and other minor chips around wick hole; burning around wick hole.

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.