General Information

This name describes a very broad ware family that includes the enormous range of plain, non-decorated, non-cooking ceramics produced throughout the southernmost Levant - southern Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan - from the Early Bronze Age through the end of the Iron Age. A wide range of vessels for household use were produced, from small bowls to large storage jars (pithoi).

Vessels have in common an unslipped surface, often wet-smoothed. Manufacture is generally and variously by coil and finished on a slow wheel. A wide range of petro-fabrics are attested, as this ware family was produced over a broad geographic area.

With a few important exceptions, Southern Levantine plain ware vessels were made for local use and were rarely exported. A notable exception are the large jars dating from the Late Bronze-Iron Age, which are found around the Levant, including Cyprus and as far west as Crete and Tiryns, and also in Egypt in New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period contexts. These jars are also depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings dating to the New Kingdom. 

This ware is the southern Levantine analogue to Northern Levantine Bronze-Iron Age Plain wares.