General Information

This ware includes vessels that were made in the Shephelah, e.g., at Tel Halif, but in shapes that are purely Egyptian. These shapes include open bowls and vats, straight-sided bowls, lotus-shaped bowls, and Egyptian flat-bottomed storage jars. None of these vessels carried any decoration.

The clay matrix is calcareous, with silt-sized quartz components. The dominant tempers are straw and rounded limestone grits, with smaller amounts of wadi sand and crushed calcite. According to petrographic analysis, the vessels found at Tel Halif were made from a loess deposit west of the site (N. Porat, personal communication). Porat identifies this identical fabric also at Tel 'Erani and Ma'ahaz. 

This ware is identical in its clay matrix to Shephelah EBA locally produced Egyptian bread molds.

Dessel (2009, pp. 56-58), Ware type Group 8