History of pottery in Palestine
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The history of pottery in Palestine starts in Neolithic times, around the 8th millennium BC, when the art of pottery was introduced into the region. This skill probably arrived from the north, together with the arts related to agriculture. The potter's wheel was introduced in the later Chalcolithic period, in the 5th millennium BC.
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Neolithic Pottery (8500-4300)
This period is split into two pre-pottery periods (PPNA - pre-pottery neolithic A and PPNB - pre-pottery neolithic B) and two pottery periods. During the PPNA, excavations reveal evidence of the domestication of plants (einkorn and emmer - grains) and animals (goats, sheep) that probably originated in eastern Turkey (Göbekli Tepe ). Settlements are made up of round houses with floors of burnt lime. In the PPNB, houses get smaller, and the range of domesticates increases. While pottery was unknown in Palestine during this period, figurines made of burnt clay have been found in Nevali Cori, eastern Turkey.
In the following Yarmukian culture (or pottery Neolithic A) in 7800-4600 BC, pottery becomes common. The vessels are made from a dark brown burnished clay paste, often tempered with lime. This is the first time that pottery is found in the "Land of the Bible." During the fifth millennia BC, a simple and crude type of pottery was made on mats. It was not of great quality, and was fragile, probably due to being produced at the lower temperatures of the clay firing scale. The types of pottery made during this period, which include bowls, deep craters, storage jars, and smaller jars with lids, provide archaeologists with information on other aspects of the period's material culture.
Decoration style and methods are always important topics when discussing pottery. They are used to help identify distinct periods and to arrive at dating structures. Even at this early date, potters used herringbone, zigzag and triangular patterns/motifs on their work. They created these designs by incising linear patterns or by applying colored clays, generally called "slips," using painting methods.
Chalcolithic Period (4300-3300)
In this period, the quality of pottery ware is far improved from the previous PN's. Smaller jars were made on the potter's wheel, a significant technical innovation. The larger jars are still made on mats. Confirming evidence of this technique, part of a mat, was found at the Nahal Mishmar site.
This period is divided into two separate categories, based on parts of the country. However, it's largely referred to under the name of the most important known site of Chalcolithic society: Teleilat Ghassul. Other communities are in Beer Sheba and the Golan Heights (identified as B+G). These societies have common pottery forms, such as large storage jars for crops in both solid and liquid forms. Long narrow cylinder pierced handles are a diagnostic characteristic of Chalcolithic times.
The Ghassul community had a diagnostic pottery form, a V-shaped cup, which was found throughout the bedrock of the site. This form is very rarely found in the B+G group. This cup seems to be an important factor in the society of the age, particularly due to the cup being found on cultic figures. The B+G group, on the other hand, seems to have shepherding as a part of their culture. Their sites' diagnostic piece seems to be a churn, which was likely used to transform milk from domesticated animals into butter or cheese. This object, too, is found on the head of a cultic figure of the period. Both of these images are found on figures at the site of Gilat.
Decorations are simple in this period. In the Golan Heights, they are sometimes made by rope. However, throughout the country, simple geometric signs and red bands of paint are used.
Early Bronze Age (3300 – 2300)
In this period, differences can be seen between regional types. Despite the difficulty in differentiating between chronological progression and regional variations, we can identify certain continuous elements from the Chalcolithic period. The major one would be the “hole mouth” cooking pot, which was constant throughout the age.
Again a handle is characteristic of this period. This time the ledge handle diagnoses the period. There is also a clear difference between the northern and southern patterns of decoration. The north used highly burnished red slip, but this is rarely used in the south. The northerners would also use reddish brown paint and a rough brush, a technique known as “grain wash”. The inhabitants of the south on the other hand were more familiar with white slip ware with painted vertical orange lines, or ware decorated with incision techniques.
An important part of describing the pottery of this period is the burial pottery. Much of this pottery consists of small jars and bottles with different types of handles and spouts. Some of these are bottles with narrow necks and lug handles, and cups with a high loop handle.
Middle Bronze Age I (2300-2000)
Although one could write about the Middle Bronze age by itself, I feel it important to distinguish this period from the rest. It is a time that is difficult to understand since civilization seemed to reduce considerably and many graves were found throughout the country.
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.
Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550)
This period is divided into three different sub periods: MBII A, B, and C. We shall see that B and C are closer linked than A. This period is diagnosed by the well-burnished red slip so often seen in the corresponding layers at digs. The slip is normally used on the smaller vessels of the period. Other decorating techniques found to be frequent amongst this period's pottery are horizontal sometimes triangular designs in black or red paint.
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.
Late Bronze Age (1550-1200)
Due to the influx of imported types of pottery, the pottery of this period must be divided into four sub groups:
Local Pottery
The local shows that there is a clear evolution of the pottery through the MB to this period. The difference that can be remarked between the two periods is that the juglets that were once of great dispersion go down in popularity and become gray as the Late Bronze age begins. In fact the local pottery is now mass-produced in a rough and cheap manner.
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.
The Bichrome Group
Again in this period we can see that the majority of this group is red paint on black background. The most common vessels that we find this type in are kraters, jars and jugs. This group, after being tested with neutron activation techniques shows that it was imported from eastern Cyprus. The major controversy is whether the Cypriot market produced Palestinian styles for exporting purposes, or whether Canaanites were producing the pottery for the home consumption in Israel. This pottery was also to be found in Megiddo locally made.
Cypriot Imported Pottery
This is a selection of handmade pottery in different Ware styles. These styles are called: Base Ring, White Slip, Monochrome, White Shaved, White Painted, Bucchero. Of these different kinds, Monochrome, White Slip, and Base Ring were most used. It appears as though this type of pottery was found to be decorative in nature rather than useful.
Mycenaean Imports
This pottery was produced on inland Greece and throughout the Aegean islands. The fabrication technique used was fast-wheel, with fine well-levigated clay. The slip was of a light cream color to give the background to the exquisite decoration normally done in dark-brown color. Vessel types were small and closed flasks or “stirrup jars”.
Iron Age I (1200-1000)
There are really two major types of pottery going on inside two separate societies in the Land of the Bible at this time. These are the Philistines and the Israelites.
Philistine Bichrome Ware
This is the descendant of the imported Mycenaean Ware of the past period, which is known also as Mycenaean IIIC1b. This new style of pottery is made locally. Neutron analysis proves that it could have even been made in the same workshop. It began at approx. 12th century and began to disappear towards the end of the 11th century. The style is slightly influenced by Egypt but mostly by Canaanite. The Mycenaean tradition holds a firm grasp over the shape of the pottery (for example “stirrup jars”), whereas bottles are found to share Cypriot styles (seen by tall and narrow necks). The decoration of this new ware has changed to red and black paints on a whitish slip. Birds and fish are found to be common on Mycenaean IIIC1b but less on the new style, in fact by the second half of the 11th century the bird which was once thought to be sacred disappeared from the pottery.
Israelite Pottery:
This is a lot cheaper and less refined than other pottery at this stage in history. The new Israelite settlers began by using very basic types of Canaanite pottery until they began developing just very simple copies of the purchased pottery so as to meet their needs. The hallmark of this early Israelite style is the pithoi. They are scattered over these sites. Many of the storage jars had The “Collard Rim”, which were most popular to the central part of Israel.
Iron Age II (1000-586)
During the period of the United Kingdom, Israelite pottery improved. Finishing techniques used a remarkable amount of red slip, applied by hand and smoothed with an irregular burnish. At the division of the United Kingdom, however, pottery styles broke into two separate traditions.
Samaria Ware is a general name given to the pottery of Israel (the northern kingdom), even though there is a wide variety of forms and styes. They can be put into two separate groups. The first is thick walled, with a high foot and red slip (sometimes burnished), most often shaped as bowls. The second is made of fine particled clay, and decorated with concentric stripes of red/yellowish colored slip.
Judean pottery is altogether different, and slowly progresses into more and more sophisticated types/styles. By the 8th/7th centuries, Jerusalem pottery was especially good. All over the southern kingdom, a technique known as “wheel burnish” was used. This term describes how an orange/red slip was applied, while the pot was on the wheel, and then burnished to a gloss using the potter's hands or smooth tools.