This petrographic group includes dark reddish-brown to dark brown, non-calcareous, silty clays. The matrix is non-active, nearly opaque (isotropic). The silt component consists mainly of (angular) quartz (8–15% of the slide area), accompanied by a considerable quantity of heavy minerals (hornblende, pyroxene and especially biotite) and feldspars (plagioclase, microcline) that also appear in fine to medium sand size (heavy minerals: up to 160 µm; feldspars: up to 260 µm).

The predominant non-plastic component is rounded to sub-rounded, fine to coarse quartz sand, forming 7–10% of the slide area. Grains have an average size of 250–320 µm. Occasional coarse grains (up to 900 µm) appear in virtually all samples. In several cases the quartz is strained (undulose extinction, subgrain re-crystallization).

Rare inclusions are calcareous sand (mainly rounded, micritic limestone), which mostly forms less than 1% of the slide area, and the exceptional angular chert. Kurkar and marine biogenic inclusions (shells) also occur.

These clays can readily be associated with (dark) brown alluvial soils (Dan et al. 1975; Wieder and Gvirtzman 1999: 233–234; Brady and Weil 2002: 100–102) of the southern Coastal Plain of Israel. While such soils also occur inland, the non-plastic inclusions in the samples clearly point to the (southern) littoral origin of this fabric group. As with the coastal loess (see Petro-fabric 31) this is indicated by the abundance of beach sand; by the high frequency and, often considerable grain size of heavy minerals and feldspars; and by the scarcity of calcareous rock fragments. The high component of aeolian silt, paired with beach sand in a bimodal texture, is a general characteristic of southern coastal clays.

This is Master’s “brown/red alluvial soil with coastal inclusions” (2003: 54–55; Stager, Master and Shloen 2011: 55–56; Fig. 4.1) and Ben-Shlomo’s (2005: 165–166) “dark brown soil,” specifically his Petro-fabric A1. Goren has treated this fabric as a form of coastal loess that has been altered during firing (Goren, Finkelstein and Na’aman 2004: 294–298). Master, however, maintained that it is derived from a separatesoil type (Stager, Master and Shloen 2011: 56).

This is the most common ceramic fabric in Iron Age assemblages at Ashkelon and was identified as local to the site. This fabric is also very common in Iron Age pottery at Ashdod. Significantly, it was identified in Iron II kiln pottery at the site (Master 2003: 54–55; cf. Ben-Shlomo 2005: 174–175). Samples derived from brown soils at Ashkelon and Ashdod are virtually indistinguishable, even by chemical analysis (ICP) (Ben-Shlomo 2005: 178; Stager, Master and Shloen 2011: 56). This fabric is probably also local to Tel Mor, situated 6 km southeast of Ashdod.

Brown soil fabrics were also identified farther inland, such as in Iron I–II ceramics from Tell eṣ-Ṣafi/Gath (Ben-Shlomo, Uziel and Maeir2009: 2267–2268), nearby Kfar Menahem and Tel Miqne/Ekron (Ben-Shlomo 2005: 183–189, Petro-fabric A2; Tables 4.11–4.13), where they were conjectured local to the area (ibid.: 166–167; see also Master 2003: 55 n. 7). They differ, however, from their coastal counterparts in their larger component of calcareous sand—limestone, nari and chalk, which is characteristic of the Shephelah—chert and foraminifera in the clay body. Also, quartz sand tends to be less spherical and more angular than in the coastal examples.

Caesarea Maritima (Israel/Central Coastal Plain)

Kfar Menahem (Israel/Shephelah)

Khirbet Qeiyafa (Israel/Shephelah)

Megiddo (Israel/Jezreel Valley)

Tel Azekah (Israel/Shephelah)

Tel Miqne/Ekron (Israel/Shephelah)

Tel Qashish (Israel/Jezreel Valley)

Tel Qiri (Israel/Jezreel Valley)

Tell Qasile (Israel/Central Coastal Plain)

Ashkelon (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)

Jerusalem, City of David (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Central Highlands)

Jerusalem, Ophel (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Central Highlands)

Tel Jemmeh (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)

Tell es-Safi/Gath (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)