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Pitt Rivers Museum

1904.35.22

Pottery lamp of buff ware with 'frog and corn' design. [MOBB [OPS move] 30/11/2016]


1904.35.22

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Pottery lamp of buff ware with 'frog and corn' design. [MOBB [OPS move] 30/11/2016]
Long description
Pottery lamp of buff ware with 'frog and corn' design. Pear shaped lamp with slightly rounded bottom and expanding sides; convex top. The filling hole is slightly depressed. The rest of the body is decorated with rows of horizontal and diagonal incised lines with short vertical hatch marks between them. The nozzle is delineated by two diagonal lines with a central ridge and diagonal ridges radiating from either side. On either side of the nozzle are two incised diagonal lines. The bottom has an incised circle. [MOBB [OPS move] 30/11/2016]
Geographical reference
Ehnasya
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Roman
Date collected
1903 - 1904
Acquisition information
Donated: 1904
Materials and processes
Material Pottery, Process Decorated, Process Incised, Process Coiled Handbuilt
Dimensions
Width: max 75 mm, Height: max 36 mm, Length: max 85 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1904.35.22
Research and responses

In the supplement to the excavation report by Petrie (1905) Roman Ehnasya, Petrie notes that the lamps were acquired from several sources in addition to the excavation in order to produce his corpus. E.g. see p.4. of the supplement: "As the excavations of the houses at Ehnasya yielded many lamps which could be fairly dated, it seemed worth while to attempt a corpus of Romano-Egyptian lamps. The material consisted of the dated examples from houses, undated from excavations, lamps found by the sebakh diggers and bought by our party, and lamps bought from dealers at Medinet el Fayum. I have not distinguished between these various groups, as it is clear that the great majority were made at some distance and brought by trade to these towns, so that they might as well be found in one place as in another close by." Therefore, the lamps in the Pitt Rivers might not necessarily be from the excavation. [AS 12/09/2012]

This lamp is identical to E.96 on pl. LXIV of Petrie, W.M.F. 1905. Roman Ehnasya (Herakleopolis Magna). London: Egypt Exploration Fund. [AS 30/10/2012]

The provenance is probably Ehnasya el-Medina, a village at the mouth of the Fayum located just above the ancient site of Herakleopolis Magna, excavated by Petrie from 1903-4; see W.M.F. Petrie, 1904, Ehnasya [RTS 8/7/2004].

Associated publications
Petrie, W.M.F. 1905. Ehnasya. London: Egypt Exploration Fund. [AS 15/06/2012] Petrie, W.M.F. 1905. Roman Ehnasya (Herakleopolis Magna). London: Egypt Exploration Fund. See pages 5-7. [AS 26/06/2012]

Search terms: Lighting, Pottery, Figure, Lamp