Lamp with a Rag Wick

Unknown

1070–945 BC or earlier · Pottery, cloth · Egyptian Art

This lamp has the remains of the linen rags that were soaked in flammable oil and lit. It was found in a pit dug into the Sankhare Temple site at Thebes. The pit had been used and reused from the Second Intermediate Period onward, with the final and only intact burial being that of Iotefamun (26.3.1a,b), which dates to Dynasty 21. The lamp might date either to workers at his burial or to those who had moved and removed burials over the long preceding period.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1070–945 BC or earlier

Medium

Pottery, cloth

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1925