altar
- Museum number
- 1909,1201.18
- Description
-
Terracotta: Part of a miniature horned altar.
The upper part of a miniature horned altar. It has come away cleanly from its separately made lower portion; one corner is broken away.
Pressed into a one-piece mould. Micaceous (very small particles) orangebrown Nile silt with a darker core. On the outside areas of red slip remain. Signs of discolouring inside suggest the burning of substances.
- Production date
- 1stC-2ndC
- Dimensions
-
Width: 7.11 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- BM Terracotta IV
Comparanda. A selection: complete or fragmentary square (and occasionally round) miniature horned altars: Adriani 1940: 123, fig. 57, three examples from a Roman tomb in Alexandria; Ballet and Harlaut 2001: 357, fig. 9:127–9, from Gabbari, Alexandria, contexts dated second to third century ad; Bayer-Niemeier 1988: nos 722 and 724, dated, respectively, first to second and second to third century ad; Dunand 1990: nos 935–40, dated Roman period; Fischer 1994: no. 1218, dated first to second century ad; Fless 1997: 77, no. 65, dated first to second century ad; Habachi 1936–7: 283, fig. 11, from Gabbari, Alexandria, found with Ptolemaic, but mostly Roman, objects of first- or second-century date; Nachtergael 1987: pl. iii, fig. 10: after p. 240, from House K at Herakleopolis Magna, dated, after Petrie, to c. ad 250; Petrie 1905: pl. liiA:162, also from House K at Herakleopolis Magna, dated mid-third century ad (Petrie and Currelly 1905: 26–7; my date, p. 4: second to fifth century ad); Petrie 1911: pl. xv:7 (Petrie Museum uc44996), from a cemetery north of Hawara pyramid = Willems and Clarysse 2000: 256, no.179; ibid.: no. 180, a plaster mould for making very small appliqué altars; Weber 1914: no. 470, purchased in Medinetel-Fayum.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition notes
- Previously unregistered.
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1909,1201.18
