Terracotta Pitcher Lamp

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Description: 

Terracotta Pitcher Lamp

Late 2nd - 1st c. BCE?

terracotta: handmade; fabric: fine red clay with some inclusions
height 6 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #87, PSU 140 (162)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This red pitcher lamp was molded with a pierced ring handle on the side. The neck is wide and open. The nozzle projects slightly from the vase-shaped body. The nozzle extends from top of neck to bottom of the reservoir. The pierced wick hole is large. The nozzle area is also pierced by six holes in two rows. Shape: Lamp in shape of vessel with disk base and sagging profile; short neck with rounded, everted rim; vertical ring-shaped handle, slightly more than a right angle; broad depressed area from rim to base, terminating in large wick hole below six smaller pierced holes in two rows. Decoration: Red-brown matte slip.  Raised band just under rim decorated with short vertical grooves; one groove encircling neck and another around lower body; circular groove articulating sides of handle. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Intact; small chip at end of nozzle; traces of burning around 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.