Description: A orange-slipped pottery oil lamp with low lug handle and the discus decorated by concentric bands of circular pellets in low relief around the central filler hole, now very much worn. Some minor encrustation, wear to the slip, hairline cracks and overall surface wear, particularly to the upper surface, but sound, from the Levant, probably Syria or Palestine.
Size: 93 mm/3.7 ins. in length
Culture: Late Roman/Byzantine
Date: c. 400-600 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.
