Levantine pottery
pottery draws inspiration from the Ceramic traditions of the Levant. It spans from the Neolithic period to the present. The earliest developments involved lime plaster vessels, simple Neolithic wares, and decorated forms such as the Yarmukian Pottery. The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age are denoted by the introduction of the Potter's wheel, regional variations, and extrinsic influences from Cyprus, Syria, and the Aegean. It produced distinctive wares, such as Khirbet Kerak and Chocolate-on-white.
With the emergence of the Iron Age, the pottery work reflected cultural identities, with Philistine, Samaria, Israelite, and Judea traditions, which developed unique styles. In the Classical, Byzantine, and Arab periods, local production persisted alongside imported slipware and new decorative techniques. Many of these traditions still continue to persist in the modern-age Palestinian pottery, which holds forms, clay, and designs that are rooted deeply in ancient practices.
Historic background
Neolithic period
The history of pottery in the region begins in the Late Neolithic period, sometimes known as Pottery Neolithic or occasionally, based on a supposed local sequence of the site of Jericho, Pottery Neolithic A.Pre-Pottery Neolithic ()
There is no good evidence for pottery production in Early Neolithic times, but the existence of pyrotechnology that allowed humans to attain temperatures in excess of for reducing limestone to lime to make plaster, indicates a level of technology ripe for the discovery of pottery and its spread. In the PPN period portable vessels of lime plaster, called "vaisselles blanche" or "White Ware" served some of the functions that pottery later fulfilled. These vessels tended to be rather large and coarse and were somewhat rare.There are some indications that pottery may have been in use in the third and final phase of the Early Neolithic, PPNC ; however, such artifacts are rare, their provenance is equivocal and the issue remains in doubt. Approximately sometime in the late 6th millennium BC, pottery was introduced into the southern Levant, and it became widely used. The supposedly sophisticated forms and technological and decorative aspects suggested to archaeologists that it must have been received as an imported, technological advance from adjacent regions to the north and was not developed locally. The evidence for this hypothesis, however, remains equivocal due to the lack of documentation in the archaeological record. This hypothesis also does not take into account the bulk of simple, rudely fashioned vessels that were part of the ceramic repertoire of this period.
Pottery Neolithic ()
Because of discoveries of earlier pottery traditions made starting in the 1990s, the time frame for the initial Late Neolithic ceramic period is thought to be roughly 7000–6700 BC. These earliest pottery traditions may be known in literature as 'Initial Pottery Neolithic' in the Balikh River area of Syria and Turkey, for example Tell Sabi Abyad. Or it may be known as 'Halula I' in the Syrian Euphrates area; the main site is Tell Halula. Also, it may be known as 'Rouj 2a' in Northern Levantine Rouj basin.By the earliest PN phase pottery was ubiquitous and it remained so for virtually all periods in the southern Levant until modern times. Exceptions were in desert areas where semi-nomads favored less heavy, fragile and bulky arrangements. Pottery styles, based mostly on form, fabric and decorative elements have been used to help identify chrono-cultural phases. White ware remained in use, but it seems to have remained rare and the vessels were often small and rather delicate. It is possible that not a few such vessels were found and identified as pottery.
The earliest PN phase is associated with the site of Sha'ar HaGolan in the Jordan Valley. This pottery is sometimes called "Yarmukian Ware". The diagnostic pottery typical of this period is somewhat sophisticated. Its most outstanding aspect is the use of long, narrow, incised bands of lines filled with herringbone decoration, often painted red or yellow. Forms of vessels may be quite delicate and lug handles on small jars with long necks are not uncommon. More common, coarser and less well made vessels are also present but are less diagnostic for the period.
Common or cruder wares generally have simple shapes and are often less well finished and are not decorated. Vessel walls of this class are often of uneven thickness and look 'lumpy'. This crude aspect is often further emphasized by grass-wiped exteriors and the negative impressions left by straw or vegetal tempers which combust and leave hollows after firing. These inclusion were either added intentionally, or are the unintentional result of poorly levigated or unlevigated clay, and are characteristic of this coarse Neolithic pottery. Later Neolithic pottery tends to favor the use of different tempers, sand, gravel, small stones and sometimes grog. Much Neolithic pottery is low-fired and did not attain temperatures far above, which is more or less the minimum required for creating pottery from low-fired clays. Probably these vessels were pit-fired rather than fired in kilns, although such an hypothesis remains to be proven. To date there is no direct evidence in excavation based literature on how Neolithic peoples of the southern Levant fired their pottery.
Later Neolithic pottery has less distinctive features. Work at Jericho by K. Kenyon suggested to her two periods of Late Neolithic, based on the existence of coarser and finer pottery groups. The former, supposedly representing a less sophisticated and earlier occupation, was labeled PNA ; the latter was called PNB. Many researchers now believe the difference to be one of function rather than evidence for chronological differences between these two groups, since examples of each are often found in contemporary contexts. Thus, PNB types are often designated as fine or luxury wares.
The site of Munhatta, excavated by J. Perrot, has contributed a large series of ceramic assemblages dated to the Neolithic period. In one phase there are some extraordinarily sophisticated ceramic vessels of especially finely levigated, highly polished or burnished, black fabric. Other pottery suggests that some potters in this period, dated later than an earlier, "Yarmukian" phase at the site, were highly skilled craftspeople. One researcher, Y. Garfinkel, refers to this phase as "Jericho IX" after a stratum and associated pottery excavated by J. Garstang at Jericho. The decorated pottery of this period often has red paint in the form of stripes, sometimes in large, wide herringbone-like decorations.
Not all pottery from these phases is so chrono-culturally diagnostic. Most vessels are of plain wares and utilitarian types. In addition, other methods of decoration are known in the later Neolithic. They include the use of slips, burnishing and incising. Wavy lines of combing, often combined with painting are one of the distinctive types of Late Neolithic decoration associated with the Rabah phase. The use of red slips and paints is common in this and later periods, and is probably the direct outcome of clays used, which are rich in iron oxides that tend, under some conditions, to fire to earthy red tones ranging from brown to orange and brick-red. These same clays, when fired in a reducing atmosphere often become gray or black in color. Dark colored, gray to black cores on some pots indicate incomplete firing
The most recent PN phase is named after the site of Wadi Rabah, excavated by J. Kaplan. Y. Garfinkel relegates this final LN period to Early Chalcolithic. The distinction seems to be mostly a matter of terminology. Since there is no definitive break between Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic, each researcher must decide what is Neolithic and what is Early Chalcolithic. The situation is even more complicated because there appears to be considerable regional variation in Neolithic pottery assemblages and not a little confusion as to what constitutes chrono-culturally related assemblages. That is a function of the generally poor preservation of PN sites and the way in which they were excavated.
Summary: Neolithic pottery may well have arrived as a full-blown technological set from more northerly regions. Pottery appears to have become ubiquitous in the southern Levant by late in the 6th millennium and remained as an integral part of human material culture up to the present. Some local potters showed particular skill in their production, which suggests, as is the case with flint knappers, real craft specialization. That is related to skills in finding and preparing raw materials, fashioning pots, decorating them, and controlling the pyrotechnology needed to turn them into pottery. Some aspects of pottery, form, fabric, modes of decoration are relatively reliable diagnostic indicators of chrono-cultural identities of human society. Pottery, mostly in the form of sherds, often makes up the bulk of material culture artifacts found on excavated sites dating from the PN period.
Chalcolithic period (Early 4th millennium BC – c. 3500 BC)
The Chalcolithic is a chrono-cultural period that may have lasted for over a millennium, although the date of its end is somewhat problematic. The earliest phases of this period are associated with pottery that is little different from the pottery of the Latest Neolithic periods. While plain wares probably dominate most assemblages, it is the decorated types which have been paid most attention to by scholars. There are few well excavated sites and no good stratigraphic sequences that have produced enough well-stratified pottery to allow for the development of any reliable chronological sequence in pottery styles, although some are claimed. Pottery of the Chalcolithic period can, for the present, be divided into two major chronological groups, Early and Late Chalcolithic. The more distinctive is the later group, known from some extensively excavated sites which have yielded large ceramic repertoires. There appear to be regional differences, especially between the northern and southern spheres of the southern Levant and at sites to the east. Some of these differences may also be chronological; new 14C dates suggest one type site, Teleilat el Ghassul in the northern Aravah Valley in Jordan, is somewhat earlier in date than a group of sites in the Beersheva Basin. Garfinkel's attempt to divide this period into three phases, Early, Middle and Late, is based on a number of spurious assemblages and is lacking in authority. While such chronological distinctions may be possible, not enough is presently known of the sequence of the Chalcolithic for determining it.Pottery of the Early Chalcolithic period is often similar to that of the Late Neolithic. One diagnostic feature of this period is found in pottery made on mats, probably of straw. When this was the case, the clay was pressed into the weave of the mat, leaving an impression which potters sometimes did not remove. Thus some bases of vessels in this period bear distinct patterns of mats on which they were made. Other techniques used for pottery production in this period include painting and slipping of exteriors, and the limited use of incised decoration, sometimes in a fish bone pattern but of usually much larger dimensions than that associated with Yarmukian pottery. One specialized form associated with this period is the so-called 'torpedo' vessel, a long narrow, thick-walled jar with two large, vertical lugs attached to its upper, almost tube-like body. Pottery of the Late Chalcolithic period sees a continuation of many of the basic shapes and types of the earlier period, but much of the typical decoration of the earlier Chalcolithic is discontinued.
Late Chalcolithic pottery is known for some special shapes including: 1) cornets—cone-like vessels with narrow apertures and long, highly tapered sides ending in exaggerated, long stick-like bases; 2) small bowls with straight sides tapering to flat bases is well documented in this period. It includes many types of rectangular boxes, some with extremely elaborate facades. Some anthropomorphic visages appear on these ossuaries in three-dimensional sculpting, often with the nose particularly prominently, while other features are generally painted. Some ossuaries are fashioned of typical jars, altered and adorned for this specific mortuary-related function.