Levantine pottery
In the PPN period portable vessels of lime plaster, called "vaisselles blanche" or "White Ware" served some of the functions that pottery later fulfilled.
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.
This crude aspect is often further emphasized by grass-wiped exteriors and the negative impressions left by straw or vegetal tempers (i.e. chopped up dried grass or weeds) which combust and leave hollows after firing.
[citation needed] The site of Munhatta, excavated by J. Perrot, has contributed a large series of ceramic assemblages dated to the Neolithic period.
Wavy lines of combing, often combined with painting are one of the distinctive types of Late Neolithic decoration associated with the Rabah phase (see below).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Recent research on the techniques of bowl making in this period indicate these vessels, while turned on a wheel, were actually only finished that way by scraping, after having been fashioned by hand.
Chalcolithic pottery technology and morphology greatly influenced the ceramic styles of the succeeding Early Bronze I period, especially in the southern region.
While major differences are known and became greater as the Early Bronze Age progressed, the earliest phases show more than a modicum of continuity with Chalcolithic potting traditions.
This ware is known for its generally gray color, highly burnished finish, and a limited and distinctive range of morphological types, almost invariably bowls.
Pottery is always handmade and in the earliest phases appears to have been home-made by local potters working within general traditions of how a pot should look, but with little slavish copying.
Grain-wash, a kind of painting that leave a pattern that is slightly reminiscent of wood (sometimes called band-slip) makes its appearance in this period in the north.
By the third and final phase of Early Bronze I there remains a dichotomy between north and south, with red-burnishing as opposed to no burnishing and the extensive use of white, quick-lime slip reflecting northern and southern traditions, respectively.
In the north is found the first evidence of infiltration of Syrian type pottery in a group of so-called 'Megiddo teapots', small, delicate, wheel-made vessels of high-fired, dark, almost metallic fabric decorated with white, wavy lines.
In the Beth Shan region certain vessels have special painted decoration, while a cave near Tel Qedesh in Upper Galilee yielded many pedestaled lamps.
[6][7] Archaeologists speculate that bilbil juglets may have been used in the trade of opium, due to traces of opiates found in some of the styles of the jugs, as well as the shape of the vessel resembling an upturned Papaver somniferum.
Towards the end of the Bronze Age there is evidence that Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIC pottery was being made by local potters from Canaanite clays.
Either this indicates a resident population of Mycenaean potters in the so-called Philistine cities, or else it reflects an ethnic movement of new cultural elements into this region.
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).
Modern Palestinian pots, bowls, jugs and cups, particularly those produced prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948, are similar in shape, fabric and decoration to their ancient equivalents.
[12] Winifred Needler, Deputy Keeper of the Near Eastern Department at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology writes in Palestine: Ancient and Modern (1949) that this continuity demonstrates "how persistently the potter's craft clung to tradition through the centuries.
[12] "Ramallah" ware, a think-walled, pinkish drab pottery painted with simple geometric and plant designs in red, is handmade; as are the "frying pan" and the home-made braziers.
[12] The Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE) has put together a collection of traditional pottery, including cooking pots, jugs, mugs and plates that are manufactured by men and women from historic villages like al-Jib (Gibeon), Beitin (Bethel) and Senjel.
Covering a wide range of colorful hand-painted plates, vases, hanging ornaments, tiles, cups, jars and framed mirrors, the ceramics are known for the intricate detail of their flower and arabesque patterns.
