Oil Lamp

Enamelled terracotta oil lamp from the library of Sidi Mohammed Abou Naceur in Tamegroute in southern Morocco, at the end of the Draa Valley. We personally harvested it on the spot in the 80s, and it is only very recently that we got rid of the thick caque of oil which covered it entirely. The depth and brilliance of his cover were a real reward. The thickness and quality of the enamelling, like the decoration of the three registers of this lamp, indicate an antiquity which makes it consistent with the establishment of the library in the 18th century or in the years that followed. These large-format clay oil lamps allowed several tomba to study the texts together.