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August 4, 2006
Friday Pot Blogging
Last Friday I pictured an Early - Middle Intermediate Bronze Age (Middle Bronze Age I) lamp. This Friday's "pot" is a Middle Bronze Age II (~1850 - 1550 BCE) oil lamp. Like the others in this collection, this lamp is from somewhere in Palestine but there is no way to know exactly where.
Notice that unlike the Intermediate Bronze Age lamp from last week, this lamp has only one wick pinch (on the right in the picture). The Intermediate Bronze Age had four. Middle Bronze II Age lamps are also generally smaller and shallower than Intermediate Bronze Age lamps. While Intermediate Bronze Age four cornered lamps have flat bottoms, this lamp has a round bottom. Like most of the lamps I will be picturing over the next few weeks, it too is wheel made. While the Intermediate Bronze Age lamp came into use and went out of use before the lamp pictured here, there may well be some overlapping period in which both forms were in use.
The example pictured here is chipped around the rim. Some of this chipping appears to have taken place in modern times. It shows signs of once having been broken into two large shards (ancient or modern break?). The somewhat curved break extended from about the center of the wick pinch to near the exact opposite side (about 10 o'clock in the picture). It was repaired in modern times although the break may have been ancient. The sootting (blackening) of the wick pinch was also done in modern times. Antiquities dealers sometimes blacken the wick pinch to make the lamp seem "authentic." It is also true that some lamps are discovered with their wick pinch blackened from use. Note that even a little part of the chipped area is blackened. There are a couple of lamps in this same study collection that I think show signs of blackening from ancient use. I'll point that out when we get to them. I'll also show the complete lamp sequence through the Iron Age II period in a future post. That will help in comparing the forms.
Posted by Duane Smith at August 4, 2006 4:24 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
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Comments
Didn't its round bottom make it unstable?
Posted by: Aydin at August 7, 2006 8:17 AM
Yes, the round bottom does make these lamps somewhat unstable, but style and utility are seldom completely aligned. In a few cases we know that they were set in small depressions. However, this one and another round bottom lamp that I have remain amazingly level with or without oil.
Posted by: Duane at August 7, 2006 8:33 AM
No wonder their temples kept going up in flames...
Posted by: Aydin at August 9, 2006 7:38 AM
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
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