General Information

This ware family is best characterized by a shared repertoire of exterior decoration styles, the most frequent being painted wavy lines and band motifs. Other common designs include: incised wavy lines and bands, painted garlands, swirls, and more free-hand imagery. Potters decorated vessels of all sorts: those for table use such as  cups, bowls, and jugs, as well as cooking vessels. All were wheel-thrown, with some evidence for modifications by hand. 

Byzantine-Islamic Geometric Painted Ware (BIGPW) shares many features with Fine Byzantine/Fine Palestinian Ware, the refined table ware made in Jerusalem. The majority of forms for both wares are open table ware vessels, and both carry incised and painted wavy line and band decoration. The primary difference is locale: BIGPW is found and likely produced east of the Dead Sea, whereas FBW/FPW was made by potters in Jerusalem. The forming technique is the main aspect that separates both BIGPW and FBW/FPW from Medieval-Modern Levantine handmade geometric painted ware (HMGP), which also has wavy line surface treatment and a similar range of open and closed shapes.

Potters varied the surface treatment depending on vessel shape and function. While most BIGPW vessels had a smooth exterior, small jars carry closely-spaced wheel ribbing. Bands and wavy lines were painted on the interior of bowls and other table vessels. All of these variations were common across the wider region (for specific examples see Tall Jawa).

Byzantine-Islamic Geometric Painted Ware vessels appear at Tall Jawa and sites in central and northern Jordan, such as ‘Amman, Rujm Al-Kursi, and Jerash, as well as sites in northern Israel (e.g., Capernaum). 

The fabric color ranges from light reddish brown to light reddish yellow to light gray, and the core is often gray, suggesting these vessels were fired in a reducing environment. Many, though not all, of these vessels were slipped, and the slip color varies between light brown to white.