Omnimatist

Home / Antiquities / Byzantine & Islamic

Byzantine Pottery Grenade

Byzantine & Islamic Antiquities

Byzantine Pottery Grenade

Culture
Byzantine
Origin
Levant
Period
9th–11th century AD
Object
Vessel
Materials
Terracotta
Dimensions
12.4 cm high × 9.4 cm wide
Catalogue
ANT-002

A hand-built pottery hand grenade with a broad, acorn-shaped body, a rounded shoulder and a squat wick spout with an everted rim. Vessels of this form were made to hold the highly combustible substance known as Greek fire, whose exact composition is not known; scholars have suggested a mixture of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime and sulphur.

Provenance
Private collection, Fort Collins, Colorado; formerly TimeLine Auctions, 6 June 2020; previously a private gentleman's collection, Northwest London, part of his father's collection formed during the 1980s
Acquired
Artemis Fine Arts · 2020

More from Byzantine & Islamic Antiquities

← Viking Bearded AxeheadGandharan Schist Head of a Man →