Pottery 'shell' form oil lamp from Egyptian tomb

Made:
100-1 BCE in Egypt
Pottery 'shell' form oil lamp, from Egyptian tomb Pottery 'shell' form oil lamp, from Egyptian tomb

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Pottery 'shell' form oil lamp, from Egyptian tomb
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Pottery 'shell' form oil lamp, from Egyptian tomb
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Pottery 'shell' form oil lamp, from Egyptian tomb, Romano-Egyptian, c.1st century BC. This lamp is basically a saucer with a pronounced lip which has been contorted to form a long slender wick channel spout to support the wick, thus resembling the natural form offered by a shell, from whence this lamp form derives.

Vegetable or mineral oil soaks into the small textile wick of this lamp, vaporises and ignites, feeding the small flame. Lamps light this were convenient, portable light sources - a crucial technological advance.

Details

Category:
Lighting
Object Number:
1953-476/2
Materials:
pottery
Measurements:
overall: 1.7717 x 3.937 x 4.7244 in.; 45 x 100 x 120 mm
type:
oil lamp
credit:
Mrs H.M. Burke