General Information

This ware was manufactured in Beirut over several centuries to make various types of deep globular cooking pots and wide, flat-bottomed baking dishes/frying pans. Over the years potters changed rim forms, details of the application of glaze, and wall thickness; these differences can help in dating. These Beirut cooking vessels have been found widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus (Nicosia, Paphos), along the entirety of the Levantine coast, from Kinet Höyük on the Bay of Iskenderun down to Israel's southern coastal plain, and in the Levantine interior, as far east and south as Amman, Kerak, and Petra (E. Stern 2012, 'Akko I, pp. 42-43).

Beginning in the second half of the 9th or beginning of the 10th c. CE, the cooking pots always have a narrow, carinated shoulder, while the baking dishes/frying pans have an outward folded triangular rim and two horizontal handles and additional thumb-indented ledge handles. On both forms, the glaze only covers the interior bottom. The glaze is sometimes yellow-brown or more often dark purple-brown (Avissar 1996, Yoqne'am, p. 139).

In the 12th c. the glaze is dark brown to purple and very glossy. It is applied to the entire interior of baking dishes/frying pans, sometimes with slops over the rim and occasional dribbles or splashes on the vessel's exterior. The fabric is fine and fired to a hard metallic-like character. In the 13th c. the walls are thicker, the glaze is brown to dark orange, and it is applied over the entire interior and rim, with less frequent dribbles or splashes on the exterior.

The fabric of the 12th c. vessels is fine and fired to a hard, metallic character; that of the 13th c. tends to brown and is coarse and sandy.

Beirut Cooking Pot ware

Paphos/Nea Paphos (Cyprus/Western South Coast)

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