Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Scrolled Grape Vine Relief

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Description: 

Almond Shaped Terracotta Lamp with Scrolled Grape Vine Relief

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: fine to medium, few inclusions. Munsell: 10 YR 7/4 very pale brown
height 3.0 cm
length 8.9 cm
width 6.8 cm
hole diameter 2.1 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #326, PSU 030 (55)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This light gray lamp is almond-shaped and has a scrolled grape-vine and grape design covering the upper portion. There is also a ridge forming a keyhole design around the large fill hole and extending around the pierced wick hole. There is another pierced hole at the end opposite the wick-hole where the pyramidal handle once was. Shape: Slipper lamp; almond-shaped lamp with almond-shaped ring base; sharply carinated body profile; large central fill hole with raised lip; keyhole-shaped ridge around fill hole extending to tip of nozzle and wick hole, forming depressed channel on nozzle axis; pyramidal handle missing. Decoration: Relief decoration on top consisting of series of circular and triangular fields outlined with pairs of parallel ridges; triangular fields near handle contain upright triangular motifs (possibly palm branches); circular fields contain bunches of grapes; smaller bunches of grapes outside fields; band of herringbone pattern on nozzle axis. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Mostly complete; missing handle; minor chips along edges; heavily worn; burnt 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.