Oil Filler for a Lamp

The molded edge of this lamp filler leads to the half-cylindrical spout (1). The bowl is hemispherical, and there is a small, raised ring in the center of the interior that is not visible on the exterior. A small, raised circle on the wall of the bowl is visible on both the exterior and interior. The bowl is otherwise plain and smooth on both sides. A series of circular depressions appear on the top of the molded edge. The prominent molding on the sides of the bowl may have once been symmetrical, but now one side is better preserved than the other; the prongs on the edge opposite the spout also appear to have been broken. There is not full agreement on what role this type of object fulfilled. It has been suggested that these were used for filling oil lamps (2), where the small spout would aid in directing valuable lamp oil into small fill holes, although it has also been suggested that they are “cosmetic mortars” (3). NOTES: 1. Compare similar objects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 39.40.51, from Nishapur, Iran, dated from the ninth to tenth centuries; 39.40.100, also from Nishapur and dated to the tenth to twelfth centuries; and 32.150.202, from Ctesiphon, Iraq, dated to the seventh to eighth centuries. 2. See L. Bouras and M. G. Parani, Lighting in Early Byzantium (Washington, DC, 2008) 3. 3. See J. W. Allan, Nishapur: Metalwork of the Early Islamic Period (New York, 1982) 37-38, 74-75, nos. 79-82 (called “cosmetic mortars). Lisa M. Anderson