General Information
This is a group of elongated slipper lamps found primarily in the southern Levant and dating to the 13th-14th centuries CE. This type may be a development of the Early Islamic period slipper lamps common in the region. Tushingham (1985: 151), in his publication of the excavations of the Armenian Garden in Jerusalem, identified an earlier (Ayyubid) type with a high tongue handle and a later (Mamluk) type with the handle pressed against the body, and this disctinction has continued to hold as the type has been defined at other sites. Avissar and Stern (2005: 126-128) refer to these types as "Lamps with a High Tongue Handle" and "Lamps with Bent Handle," respectively. The transition between the two types occurs during the mid-13th century AD, with the type with high tongue handle produced for a short period during the early 13th century and the type with bent handle produced during the late 13th and 14th centuries. Production occurred at multiple centers, and molds have been found at Nabi Samwil, north of Jerusalem (Dolinka 2018: 202), and Khirbat al-Shaykh 'Isa (medieval Zughar) in Jordan (Politis 2023: 75, Fig. 5.1).
The most distinctive feature of these lamps tends to be their handles, which are pulled into a thinning tongue shape and often grooved on the top. The biggest distinction between the two types is handle shape, with the handle sticking up away from the body on the earlier type and bent toward (and often touching) the body on the later type. The decoration on the earlier type includes calligraphic, pseudo-calligraphic, and vegetal motifs, while the decorat...
Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir (Jordan/Wadi 'Arabah)
Petra (Jordan/Southern Sandstone Highlands)
