Newari Ceramic Oil Lamp

A lump of dark, crusty metal with a ringed hollow and two lifted shoulders.

This terra cotta oil lamp is Newari, from Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, and dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. Terra cotta is unglazed fired clay, porous and warm in color, and it has been shaped into lamps, vessels and figures for thousands of years. A flattened, irregular piece with a raised circular rim around a central dish and two bulging humps at the back. The surface is rough, pitted and dull, in blackish brown with gray crust. It is 5 inches wide, 4 deep and 1.5 high.

It looks like something the ground handed back reluctantly.