General Information

This is a common ware of the Middle Islamic period in the southern Levant, although commonly misidentified, especially on surveys, due to its similarity to Early Islamic period wares. Although often assumed to be rare at many Middle Islamic period sites compared to Medieval-Modern Levantine handmade geometric painted ware (HMGP) and Medieval-Modern Levantine Handmade Unpainted ware, this wheel-made ware is common even at rural sites. For example, wheel-made wares made up 65% of the pottery in a Mamluk cistern fill at Khirbat Faris in central Jordan (McQuitty, et al. 1997: 207) and unglazed wheel-made wares made up 43% of the excavated ceramic assemblage at Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir in southern Jordan (Jones 2018: 404).

Mulder (2014: 144) notes an "urgent need for typologies of common Islamic ceramics," and certainly this is the case for these wares, as much remains to be determined about the relationship of these wares to Early Islamic unglazed buff wares, plain wares of the Crusader period, e.g., Beirut Frankish plain ware, Middle Islamic period molded wares, etc. Nonetheless, the basic shapes made in this ware are fairly well-known, and include bowls (both hemispherical and carinated, with the carinated bowls seemingly emerging slightly later), jars, jugs, and abariq (spouted jugs). An early 13th century variety of jugs bears stamped decoration on the neck, and jugs and jars with either painted or incised decoration emerge in the later 13th century (Avissar and Stern 2005: 111). Some of the forms, notably the bowls, also seem to continue into the Ottoman period (Avissar and Stern 2005: 82).

The distribution of these wares seems to be quite wide, although still not well-known. Production of this ware is known from al-Karak (Mason and Milwright 1998: 179-180) and probably Jerusalem (Boas 2006: 86), and if the ware is to be grouped with similar wares, other sites throughout Syria, e.g., Balis, where production of mold-decorated buff/cream wares is known (Mulder 2014).

The most common examples of this ware are found in buff and cream fabrics, sometimes with a gray core. The color of some examples is more greenish, and similar vessels are also found in pink and red fabrics. The ware is somewhat heterogeneous due to its production at multiple centers, but quartz and carbonates are common inclusions.

Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir (Jordan/Wadi 'Arabah)

al-Wu'ayra (Jordan/Southern Sandstone Highlands)