Oil lamp, yellowish glass with applied threads
A cylinder attached to the base inside the oil lamp was intended to hold the wick in the center. Along the outside is a decoration of glass threads forming suspension rings at the top for a metal hanging, now missing. Below the rings, the threads create a number of bosses that partly conceal the oil lamp’s circular base, revealing that the lamp could both hang and stand.
The lack of decoration proper creates a measure of uncertainty in dating oil lamps of this type, which can be seen as a precursor of the famous enameled lamps from 13th-14th-century Egypt and Syria (D 32/1986 and 31/2008). The lamp’s yellowish glass was admirably suited to the light that came from its burning wick.
The lack of decoration proper creates a measure of uncertainty in dating oil lamps of this type, which can be seen as a precursor of the famous enameled lamps from 13th-14th-century Egypt and Syria (D 32/1986 and 31/2008). The lamp’s yellowish glass was admirably suited to the light that came from its burning wick.