General Information

This long-lived ware family encompasses the plain, unslipped, utilitarian vessels made for household use in the eastern Shephelah and the Central Hill from the middle of the 2nd mill. BCE through the later 1st mill. BCE. For over a millennium, potters in these areas produced a range of practical shapes: bowls, small and large, deep and shallow; pitchers, jugs, and juglets in various forms and sizes; and large jars to store and also transport commodities - grain, beans, oil, wine, and water. They used locally available clays, and took various attitudes towards levigation. Most vessels are freckled with lime but are otherwise fairly clean and professionally prepared: surfaces are wet-smoothed, walls are of even thickness, firing is consistent. On occasion, vessels have medium-sized, angular, dark red-grey inclusions that seem to be naturally occurring components of the local clays.

The western part of the Central Hill region is an area with high hills, wadies situated to the west of Jerusalem that bounds with the eastern Shephelah region. The eastern Shephelah is a region of moderate hills, cut by wadis, is situated between the Judean hills to the east, and the more gentle hilly terrain of the western Shephelah. The area is suitable for agriculture, especially the cultivation of olive trees, as well as pastoralism, pursuits that have supported millennia of occupation, generally farmsteads and villages, but occasionally also larger towns. Over the millennium or so that this ware was manufactured, the eastern Shephelah represented a frontier zone between historically opposing polities. In the later 2nd and early 1st mill. BCE it marked the border between Philistia, in the lowlands and on the coast, and Judah, in the southern central highlands. From the mid-1st to the later 1st mill. BCE the eastern Shephelah was divided in the area of the 'Ela Valley which marked the border between Idumea, in the southern part of the Shephelah, and Judea to the north. Because of its situation as a border zone, it happened that over the course of this long stretch of time, people living here developed various forms of material culture to represent their different political identities and cultural attitudes. The plain household pottery did not rise to this level of material significance until the 3rd century BCE in the southern part of the easter Shephelah. The inhabitants of the area to the south of the 'Ela Valley started to produce their utility and table wares in a local ware https://www.levantineceramics.org/wares/869-idumean-hellenistic-chalk-flecked-semi-fine-ware. The central hill and north-easter Shephelah inhabitants continued to produce their vessels in the plain ware until the later part of the 2nd century BCE when they developed a new ware.

The ware is characterized by locally available clays, mostly freckled with lime but are otherwise fairly clean and professionally prepared: surfaces are wet-smoothed, walls are of even thickness, firing is consistent. On occasion, vessels have medium-sized, angular, dark red-grey inclusions that seem to be naturally occurring components of the local clays. Different levels of levigation are observed.

Khirbat Shumeila (Israel/Shephelah)

Khirbet Qeiyafa (Israel/Shephelah)

Khirbet er-Rasm (Israel/Shephelah)

Nahal Yarmut, Site 94/29 (Israel/Shephelah)

Tel Azekah (Israel/Shephelah)