General Information

"Combed Ware" is a distinctive decorative mode that was applied to a few specific types of vessels: large- and medium-sized jars with flat-bases and ovoid bodies, sometimes with two loop handles; handled vats, where the combing is sometimes on the outside and often partially or wholly on the inside; and hole mouth cooking pots, which are distinctive to the Lebanese coast. The jars are associated with the bulk storage and transport of commodities during the EBA II-III. 

Vessels bearing combed decoration have been found throughout both the northern and southern Levant, from the ‘Amuq/lower Orontes to the Shephelah. Although examples have been found at sites in inland western Syria, most examples come from sites on, or close to, the coast. Numerous sites in the Lebanese Bekaa have also produced ‘Combed Wares’. In the southern Levant, ‘Combed Ware’ has been identified both on the coast and inland, in the Galilee (e.g., Tel Dan, Hazor) and in the Shephelah (e.g., Tell Yarmouth). Examples are less common east of the Jordan River, and in general combing is more common at sites in northern Israel/Palestine than in the south; in the latter region, examples are concentrated in EB III, and many carry a white exterior coating recently confirmed as lime plaster. ‘Combed Ware’ vessels have also been identified in Egypt, with instances recovered from contexts at Abydos, Giza, Saqqara, Dashur and Abusir, ranging between the 1st and 6th Dynasties.

The likeliest explanation offered for combed decoration is that it helped in the construction of large vessels by masking the joins between the coils of clay used in their formation (Greenberg and Porat 1996: 10; Thalmann and Sowada 2014: 367–69).

Petrographic analysis reveals that ‘Combed Ware’ vessels came in a number of colors and patterns, and were fired in different conditions; indeed not all were highly fired. Further, their wide distribution argues against a single point of origin, and so also against the existence of a single ‘Combed Ware’ fabric. Analyses have shown that Central Levantine "Combed Ware" falls into two broad petrographic groups: fabrics derived mostly from shale sources, and ones that are calcareous, and often containing a large amount of quartz. Vessels made from the calcareous fabrics are more varied and regionally distinctive than those made from shale-rich clays. During EB III, most of the ‘Combed Ware’ vessels are calcareous in nature.

Shale-derived fabrics seem to display similar characteristics across the Levant, and geochemical evidence strongly suggests production using a limited number of clay sources. In most areas under these fabrics seem to be mainly restricted to the EB II.The shale-derived fabrics originate in the Lebanese mountains; the appearance at sites in coastal Lebanon of vessels made from these clays may be the result of production by mobile potters who brought a supply of clay with them, perhaps by traveling with donkeys carrying baskets of dry clay.

*The above comes from Badreshany et al. 2019: https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2019.1641009