Description: A Syro-Palestinian pottery oil lamp with thumb spur handle, a multi-point star shaped pattern surrounding the filler hole and a thin segmented band on the shoulder. Some encrustation and overall surface wear and traces of soot deposits around the wick hole, but sound. Probably from Syria or Palestine.
Size: 98 mm/3.8 ins. in length
Culture: Byzantine
Date: c. 500-650 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.
