General Information

NUPW represents the undecorated analogue to Nabataean Painted Fine Ware (NPFW), with which it shares a similar chronological span, production techniques, and, likely, manufacturing origin. Both wares are thin walled and hard fired; both are produced from highly levigated clays. NUPW is represented by a wide range of forms for table and household use, including saucers, drinking bowls, jugs, juglets, table amphoras, jars, and unguentaria.

The chronology of NUPW is based on stratified deposits from excavations of az-Zantur, a palatial villa in Petra. Vessels first appear in deposits that also contained fragments of Eastern Sigillata A, which puts the ware's beginnings around 100 BCE. In the first phase vessel forms are very similar to standard late Hellenistic shapes such as incurved rim bowls and small, ledge-rim saucers. Around the middle of the 1st c. BCE, Petra's potters developed a set of eggshell-thin vessel forms (Nabataean Painted Fine Ware Phase 2), and also began producing unpainted, plain ware versions of some of those same forms. Some of these vessels were adorned with rouletted designs on the exterior. Production of bowls, saucers, beakers, small jars, jugs, and amphoras continued into the 2nd and possibly also the 3rd century, well after the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 CE. 

* Much of this entry derives from Schmid 2007, pp. 311-316.

Avdat (Israel/Negev)

Mampsis/Mamshit (Israel/Negev)

Orhan Mor, Moyat 'Awad (Israel/Negev)

Khirbat al-Nawafla (Jordan/Southern Sandstone Highlands)

Wadi Musa, Town Center (WMS Site WM18) (Jordan/Southern Sandstone Highlands)