Description: A Syro-Palestinian pottery oil lamp with thumb spur handle and a raised band containing oblique lines and geometric motifs surrounding the filler hole; a tree-like pattern within a circle on the handle and two four-spoke wheel designs on the shoulder behind the wick hole. Traces of soot close to the wick hole, the raised design worn and some discolouration, but sound, from the Levant, probably Syria or Palestine.
Size: 90 mm/3.5 ins. in length
Culture: Byzantine
Date: c. 600-700 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.
