'Akko/Acre

12th - 13th centuries CE

Lamp

Israel/Northern Coastal Plain

Crusader-Frankish/Ayyubid/e...

Lighting

this petrographic family have ferruginous, slightly calcareous matrix containing tiny mica flakes. Rare chalk inclusions and iron oxide nodules comprise less than 4% of the volume of the sherd. Olivine, oxyhornblende and plagioclase (one 0.1 mm grain in the section) are sporadically present. Firing temperature is estimated to have been between 850º and 900ºC due to the presence of oxyhornblende and decomposed carbonate.
The current sample (P144) is slightly different from the others. Its fabric seems to be saturated with microfossils and their fragments.
All the lamps have a deeply vitrified surface as a result of saltwater and the high firing temperature (above 800ºC).