Oil Lamp Fragment and Lead Artifact Concentric Design

[v-drome]

Hi, all.  I was interested in the recent topic on the Samaritan oil lamp so I looked at some of our lamp fragments and found this one.  I have not been able to find a similar design on-line, and I am not sure how to date it.  I did remember this lead "badge" and I would like to know if they might be related in age and meaning.  A somewhat similar lead piece that I saw on-line referred to it as a "Crusader Amulet", but no other information was provided.  Both of these objects were surface finds from the beach south of Caesarea Maritima in the early 1970's, so could be of almost any age.  Thanks for any ideas.  V-drome.

BCC L14                                                      BCC CG--
Lead Amulet or Badge                                  Oil Lamp Fragment
Late Roman?-Magical/Gnostic?                     Samaritan?
Samaritan? or Crusader?
Obv: Concentric design with border of
20 dots, 18 boxes, an inner circle
surrounding five pellets and a central
dot. Two mounting loops, intact.
32x22mm. 4.14gm.
Rev: Blank

[cmcdon0923]

V;

I took a quick through the ADLER COLLECTION book and while I didn't find a 100% match to the fragment's pattern, the use of the "wheel" motif with various types of central ornamentation seems to be somewhat prevalent on what they refer to as "Samaritan style" lamps.


Craig

[v-drome]

Thank you for the reference, Craig.  I found some pages of the Adler Collection on-line, which I had not seen before.  It is very useful and interesting!

Best Regards, Jimi