Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Maltese Cross Relief

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Description: 

Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Maltese Cross Relief

East Christian

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: medium. Munsell: 2.5 YR 6/4 light reddish brown
height 3.7 cm
length 9.0 cm
width 6.0 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #200, PSU 200 (204)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This white, slipper-shaped lamp has the end of its nozzle broken off. The design on the recessed and centrally pierced discus is a relief of a Maltese cross. The handle is not pierced and sits over the rear of the lamp. Shape: Roughly almond-shaped lamp with flat base set off by shallow almond-shaped groove; carinated body profile; concave discus with small central fill hole; pair of circular grooves around discus; wick hole at pointed end; unpierced rounded upright handle at broad end of body. Decoration: Relief decoration on top consisting of equal-armed cross on discus with flanged arms; series of five parallel grooves along nozzle axis. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Mostly complete; tip of nozzle broken away; very dirty; encrusted with whitish residue; traces of burning near 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.