Clayey ferruginous silty matrix. The silt is of aeolian origin and composes up to 20% of the sherds’ volumes. It comprises mainly quartz, x10 lesser quantities of plagioclase, tiny dots of iron oxides, and accessory hornblende. Sand-size inclusions within the sherds are sporadic, and are: sub-rounded to sub-angular 0.5–3.0 mm cryptocrystalline limestone and/or chalk; rounded to sub-rounded 0.4-1.8 mm grains of mature quartz; 0.3-1.0 mm lumps of same as matrix clay; and ferruginous ooliths – spherical (rarely elliptical) bodies, which preferable diameters range between 0.3 and 2.0 mm. They are very dark brown to black and are opaque in transmitting light, either without or with distinguished concentric internal structure.
These ooliths are one of the "fingerprints" of Lower Cretaceous continental formations which fragmented outcrops are known in upper Galilee (Levitte 2001, geological map).
The soils developed on top of these formations are high quality raw material for perfect pottery production.
The lithology corresponds to the pottery studied by David Adan-Bayewitz for the Jewish settlement of Kefar Hananya (Adan-Bayewitz D. 1993, photo 1-2); to the Galilean cook ware from Tel Anafa (Berlin A. 1997.:14-15); and to the unpublished results of the petrographic study of the ceramic vessels from the potters’ kiln of Yodefat (Iotapata) (Shapiro A.)
c. 1800 - 500 BCE
Middle Bronze Age II, Middle Bronze Age III, Late Bronze Age, Iron Age
