KE 407 (Early Byzantine North African Lamp) [permalink] [next]
Type
Inventoried Object
Technique
Uneven smoothing. Motifs on shoulder surrounded by raised outlines and clay blobs in places, and overlap adjacent forms; discus outline and shoulder relief show irregular smearing. All this indicates sloppy technique and no careful cleaning of motifs in plaster mold before impression.
Bonifay lampe type 68 (‟décors à contours saillants et/ou se chevauchant”)
Fabric, firing, surface
Pale brown fabric with a tinge of orange, fired slightly paler at very surface. Hard, dense, slightly coarse; somewhat granular break, with uneven and pitted surface. Uncommon, poorly sorted, tiny to small, tabular and subrounded mostly white (calcareous) inclusions, some spalling, and rare, tiny dark (gray and red) bits; rare, medium to large, angular off-white chunks. Northern Tunisian?
Preservation description
One sherd preserves very small part of discus, left front one-quarter of shoulder, and small part of channel to wickhole. Slight, moderate abrasion, pitting, and chipping; mostly clean breaks; thin, somewhat extensive patch of encrustation.
