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Description: | An unidentified stone object which is 93.4mm long, 61.6mm wide and 44mm tall. It weighs 261g. The object is a cylinder with a narrow waist and a spout like projection at the top. It is possibly made of two pieces of stone; at the narrowest point is a band of black material (tar/wax/glue?) which may indicate a join. Also, the sides of the upper circular face do not line up with the sides of the base. In the top face is a central circular depression which contains some red coloured crystalline material. XRF testing did not indicate this to be any material other than stone, so they are presumably natural crystals in the stone. The area round the central well is convex and then there is a circular groove half way between the well and the edge. At the projecting area, the circular groove extends along the projection in two straight lines to the end. The area between the grooves is convex. The area outside the grooves is flat. The plan of the projecting area is sub-triangular, with tapering sides, but a rounded area at the tip. The base of the top piece of stone is conical, tapering to a diameter of 33mm at the join. The under side of the projecting "spout" is bevelled, with a central apex. Diagonal grooves mark the division between the projection and the rest of the top piece. There is also an incised groove round the perimeter on the disc, but stopping at the diagonal lines. The lower piece of stone is circular. The base is flat except for a small central circular hole which looks like the mark where it was attached to a lathe. It has a similar shape to the top piece, but is a little taller. There is an incised border near the base, and then the stone tapers inwards towards the join. There is a projecting angular collar just more than half way up the tapering upper part of the base.In shape and style, the object is similar to Roman oil lamps, but none quite like this object have been seen by the Roman specialists asked to comment. If it was an oil lamp, the grooves in the spout should continue into the central depression, so the wicks could rest in the grooves and soak up oil from the centre. The depression also seems too small to hold enough oil. Oil lamps usually have a hollow chamber which is filled with oil. There is no such chamber in this object which also seems to rule out it being a modern Divali lamp. It has also been suggested that the object is a Medieval resin burner, with pieces of resin being placed in the central well, and the whole object put onto hot coals to allow the resin to melt. Again, it has not been possible to find a published parallel for this theory. Since the object was found in a maritime context, the possibility that is a functional sea-faring related object has been considered, but staff of the Mary Rose Trust and the Royal Naval Museum have not been able to identify it. None of the PAS finds advisors have been able to positively identify this object. Currently then, it has to remain unidentified and undated.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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