General Information

Grey/Black Gaza ware is a long-lived ware family with multiple production centers in and around the southern Levantine cities of Gaza and Faluja. The consensus belief is that the beginning date of production is around c. 1800, on the basis of 19th c. travelers accounts and archaeological evidence from Ramot Nof, Be'er Shema, and Nahal Be'erotayim. A study by Itamar Taxel now offers evidence that production began much earlier, in the 16th c. CE, on the evidence of finds from Aphek-Antipatris and Tel Beth Shemesh.

This ware family is represented by a wide range of utilitarian/household shapes, all fired in a reducing atmosphere so that they are fully fired grey all over. On the basis of historical and ethnographic records, we know of well over 100 workshops, with peak production in the 1940s.

This ware has also been recorded at various sites in Jordan, in varying quantities. In Petra, it has been recorded both inside and outside the valley at the Jabal Harun and in the Baydha area. The trading relationships between Gaza and sites a short distance from Petra in the early 19th century is well recorded by Burckardt (see M. Sinibaldi (2013), The Pottery from the 11th and 20th centuries, pp. 193-914 and Knodell et al. 2017).

Hard, gritty, dark grey or black fabric

Black Gaza ware, Grey Gaza ware

Aphek (Israel/Central Coastal Plain)

Birsama (Israel/Negev)

Ramla (Israel/Central Coastal Plain)

Beth Shemesh (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Central Highlands)

Hammama (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)

Khirbat Jils (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)

Netivot (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)

Tel Hadid (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Central Highlands)

Tell es-Safi/Gath (Israel-Palestinian Authority/Southern Coastal Plain)