Head Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Tripod Base

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Description: 

Head Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Tripod Base

terracotta: handmade?, fabric: fine reddish clay. Munsell: 2.5 YR 5/4 reddish brown.
height 5.5 cm
 length 10 cm
width 4.6 cm 

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #51, PSU 006bis (13)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This fictile lamp with a red slip is in the form of a human head and face with well defined features. The eyes and mouth (with protruding lower lip) are fill holes; the top of the head tapers and becomes a long nozzle. It is supported on a short tripod base. Shape: Ovular plastic lamp in shape of human face with cone-shaped ""hat"" forming nozzle; flat base with three short and round feet (0.006-0.009 m in height). Decoration: Red slip, highly burnished on all surfaces (2.5 YR 4/6 red).  Face is highly modeled with pierced eyes and mouth functioning as fill holes; knotted brow; raised ridge around eye holes; lachrymal caruncle indicated; slightly crooked nose with nostrils; nasolabial fold indicated; mouth is displayed open with sharply protruding lower lip or tongue; sharp cheekbones. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Nearly complete; recomposed from 14 fragments; large chip at end of nozzle and many other minor chips; some whitish residue and encrustation; traces of burning around top, fill holes, and nozzle.

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.