Pottery

Prehistory

Decoration is always a subject when addressing pottery, and therefore it is interesting to see that even then, the pottery was decorated from its beginnings. The potters of the period would use herringbone, zigzag and triangular patterns/motifs on their creations. They would do these designs using incision or paint to apply their decoration.

This period is divided into two separate parts of the country although it's largely referred to under the name of the most important place of Chalcolithic society: Teleilat Ghassul. The other communities are in Beer Sheba and the Golan Heights (B+G). These societies have common pottery such as large storage jars for crops both in their solid and liquid forms, along with jars. Long narrow cylinder pierced handles are diagnostic to Chalcolithic times.

The Ghassul community have a diagnostic piece of pottery which is a V-shaped cup found all over the bedrock of the particular community. This was very rarely found in the B+G group. This cup seems to be an important factor in the society of the age due to it being found on cultic figures. The B+G group on the other hand seem to have shepherding as a part of their culture due to their diagnostic piece being a churn. This is used to make the milk from the domesticated animals into butter. This too is found on the head of a cultic figure of the period. What is interesting is that both these are found on figures at the same site of Gilat.

Decorations are simple in this period and are found in the Golan Heights to be sometimes made by rope, although throughout the country simple geometric signs and red bands of paint are used.

Three major groups the Transjordan, the northern and the southern can define the pottery of this age. Despite this division of regional practices, there are still common aspects to the pottery as a whole throughout the land. Goblets, amphoriskoi (a small jar with two handles), and the “teapot” jar with the spout that gives it its name. Diagnostic to this period is the four-spout lamp.

The Transjordan grouping is to be found in sites like Bab edh-Dhra. It is marked by the burnished red slip, which barely appears in the other cultures, but is reminiscent of the previous Early Bronze Age.

The northerners are remarked by a pale red slip, and poorly decorated red stripes or circles. These northern sites are mainly in the areas of the Jezreel Valley, and Upper Galilee. They seem to have brought in much of the Early Bronze pottery onwards and still use ledge handles and formed them into the “envelope shape”. The northern family has also been found to be using imported Syrian gray/black ware. This foreign ware is “teapots” and goblets made on the wheel, and can be easily spotted due to the white horizontal/wavy lines.

The southerners of the central hill country, Jordan Valley, Shephelah and other sites are noted by their lack of red slip or painted decoration. They decorate using incision techniques, and a five tooth narrow comb. Apart from the countrywide norm, the south has handless jars with a wheel made flaring neck.

The second half of this period (B+C) is not seen by the burnished red slip, which all but disappeared during the eighteenth century, replaced by white/creamy slip. The astonishing event of this period is the mastery of the potters over the wheel. The pottery is often quite thinly walled and even kilned at high temperatures. Despite this, there is a progression of techniques from MBII A, which does denote continuity in society from then. Other noticeable traits of the period are a lack of painted design on most types of pottery and then only unicolored. The one color often tends to be stripes or circles with the odd bird making an appearance. These designs appear on ointment juglets.

The ointment juglet is the most important piece of pottery of the period. The fashion of juglets swings gradually from piriform ones to cylindrical. Amongst these vessels we find zoomorphic shapes like animals or human heads. These designs are often accompanied by “puncturing”, which used to be filled by white lime.

Lastly Chocolate on White Ware and Bichrome Ware are important pottery types appearing in the 16th century. The first of the two types consists of a thick white slip being applied followed by a dark brown paint. This type is found in the northern region of the country particularly close to the Jordan Valley. The Bichrome Ware the more important of the two can be found at Tel el-Ajjul and Meggido among others. Its “pendant” lines or stripes that come usually as black on white slip, or more commonly as red on black can help notice this type of pottery. Bichrome was imported from Cyprus.

Paint decoration returns to fashion, even though it is simply added to the light buff slip, and sometimes without slip. The paint shows many different geometric shapes, and sometimes inside painted on rectangular panels called metopes a sacred tree flanked by two antelopes can be found.

Samaria Ware is a name given to the pottery of Israel (the northern kingdom), even though it is a description of a wide variety. This can be put into two separate groups though. The first is thick walled, with a high foot and red slip (sometimes burnished), which often come as bowls. The second is made of well-levigated clay, and decorated with concentric stripes of red/yellowish color.

Judean pottery is altogether a different story and slowly progresses into more, and more sophisticated types/styles. This although is not taking anything away from this pottery, because by the 8th/7th centuries the Jerusalem pottery was especially good. All over the southern kingdom, a technique known as “wheel burnish” was used describing how the orange/red slip was applied whilst the pot was on the wheel.