Bronze Oil Lamp

This ‘open tank’ type of oil lamp has a globular body with a flat, horizontal, triangular handle. The spout has a curved hollow and the foot has been joined after casting. Geometric decoration is distributed exclusively on the rim of the bowl and consists of stylised rosettes with a series of double circles. Zigzag decorations have been moulded on to the handle. The body, its decorations and the spout have all been shaped by a mould.

Stylistically inspired by the Byzantine period in the Middle East, this type of lamp is also known from the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods from various excavations in the Middle East. Given the prevalence of trade during the 9th-century of the Abbasid period, this lamp may have come from an Iranian workshop.