General Information

This ware was first identified at Horvat Omrit in contexts dating to the 1st c. CE. It is related petrographically to mid-late Roman Hawarit ware, but appears earlier and in a different range of shapes, including cooking vessels, jugs and jars, saucers and bowls. This ware is distinctive for the color of fabric and surface, which form a contrast that evokes a sunset. The interior fabric is a very pale light orange-pink, while the surface color ranges from light orange to reddish to purplish brown. Vessels are hard, thin-walled, and fully fired. 

On the basis of a few late Hellenistic shapes that appear at Omrit, Sunset ware seems be a production that began in the late Hellenistic period, at first contemporary with and then succeeding Hula Valley Spatter-painted ware, and preceding Hawarit ware.

The fabric is gritty, with an inclusion profile similar to that of Hawarit ware but slightly more granular, and well-sorted, with fine black grits, occasional small limestone flecks. In comparison to Hula Valley Spatter-painted ware, the matrix of Sunset ware is better sorted and more compact. The inclusions are fewer and more regularly sized, and there are fewer voids. The firing profile also seems different: spatter-painted ware vessels seem to have been fired at higher temperatures, and then cooled more quickly, while Sunset ware vessels seem to have been fired at slightly lower temperatures and cooled more slowly. 

Horvat Omrit (Israel/Hula Valley)