Lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lamp is shaped like a small bowl. It has a flat base and a rounded rim with a pinched spout. It is made of a buff clay using a potter’s wheel. Scorch marks around the rim indicate that it was used in antiquity. This lamp was excavated at Qasr-i Abu Nasr, a Sasanian town near modern Shiraz, Iran. It was found in the western area of the site, where material dating to the Sasanian and Islamic periods was recovered. The simple form of this lamp makes it difficult to date precisely, as it has parallels in both Sasanian and early Islamic material. Lamps like this one were the primary lighting technology available to most people at Qasr-i Abu Nasr. Presumably some sort of plant oil, such as sesame or castor oil, was used as fuel. The simple form of the lamp made it easy to fill and clean. Since it has a flat base and no handle it was most likely intended to be placed on a table or shelf.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.

Metropolitan Museum of Art