General Information

Spatter-painted ware is a product of a pottery industry centered in Israel's Hula Valley. The specific clay sources are unknown, but finds of vessels at sites throughout the valley dating to the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic, and Early Roman periods, all made of a practically identical coarse, pale pink-yellow clay, attest to its production in this region. In the Hellenistic period, potters used this clay source to manufacture every sort of household form: saucers and bowls for dining; kraters and table amphoras for table service; cooking pots and casseroles; mortaria and water pitchers; and large jars. This was an small, all-purpose local industry, whose fortunes ebbed and flowed along with the Valley's populations over time.

Moderately hard, coarse fabric with many small to large white, gray, brown, and red inclusions. The color of fabric and slip are highly variable. Unslipped surfaces are fired from purplish brown (2.5YR 4/4, 5YR 5/6) to pink (10R 8/4), to orange (2.5YR 6/8), or pale yellow (10YR 8/4). There is often a wide gray core (2.5YR or 5YR 4/1). The ware gets its name from the thick, sloppily applied slip that partially coats many (but not all) vessels in this ware. This slip is matte and ranges in color from red brown (10R 5/1, 2.5YR 4/4, 5YR 4/4) to pink (2.5YR 6/6).

Spatter-painted ware is quite coarse, with many inclusions of various colors and sizes as well as many voids, giving the section a spongy appearance (Berlin 1997b:7–9). The paste color is generally pale, ranging from almost white to light peach, although gray (reduction-fired) examples occur occasionally. On the exterior there is usually (though not always) a messy, spattered application of paint, which fires to a muddy reddish-brown color. There is almost always a firing core. 

Qedesh/Kedesh (Israel/Galilee)

Tel Anafa (Israel/Hula Valley)

Kawm al-Rummān Ouest/3, Kôm er-Rumman/3 (Syria/Hauran)

Kuraym Sud, Kreim sud (Syria/Hauran)

Qirāṭa Est, Qirata (Syria/Hauran)

Tall Qiswa, Tell Jessoua (Syria/Hauran)

Ḫirbat al-ʿArīš, Khirbet al-Arish (Syria/Hauran)

Ṣūr al-Lajāʾ Nord (Syria/Hauran)