Description: A grey brown terracotta oil lamp of robust form, the shoulder decorated with a moulded segmented band which passes into curvilinear lines towards the wick hole. Originally with a stub handle but this now lost and with a pronounced rim to the filler hole. Some encrustation, minor chips and overall surface wear and some soot deposits around the wick hole, probably from Syria or Palestine.
Size: 95 mm/3.7 ins. in length
Culture: Byzantine/early Islamic
Date: c. 600-800 A.D.
Provenance: Ex Colorado private collection, and previously in the Major Blinkinsop Collection, acquired while working for the UN in the Middle East during the 1960s.
Background: Major Blinkinsop built up a very large collection of ancient lamps while serving in the Middle East. The entire collection was crated up and shipped to the USA at the onset of the 1967 Israeli-Arab War. These crates were reputedly only opened by his descendants in 2012.
