Petrographic Analysis of Iron I Pottery

Summary of the book

In Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan: Volume 3, The Iron Age Pottery, Michèle Daviau presents a detailed typology of the Iron Age pottery excavated from 1989 to 1995. She looks beyond the formal changes to an in-depth analysis of the forming techniques employed to make each type of vessel from bowls to colanders, cooking pots to pithoi. The changes in fabric composition from Iron I to Iron II were more significant than those from Iron IIB to IIC, although changes in surface treatment, especially slip color, were noticeable. Petrographic analysis of Iron I pottery by Stanley Klassen contributes to our growing corpus of fabric types, while Peter Epler documents typical Ammonite painted patterns and Elaine Kirby and Marianne Kraft present a typology of potters’ marks.

First paragraph form the article

This chapter describes the results of petrographic analysis conducted on seven Iron Age I ceramic samples from excavations at Tell Jawa, and three clay samples from the region. Six collared pithoi and one cooking pot were chosen from the numerous examples excavated in Areas A, B and E from Stratum X contexts. The samples were initially chosen for a larger study on the production of Iron I collared pithoi from sites in the Madaba Plain region. Although sampling was opportunistic in nature, the collared pithoi analyzed largely reflect the variety of rim forms evident at the site, as well as the various fabrics and firing conditions identified through macroscopic analysis (see Chapter 3). Fewer examples of Iron I cooking pots were uncovered at Tall Jawa, and the example analyzed is an uncommon form for this stratum. Preliminary results of the petrography have been published elsewhere (Daviau and Klassen 2019), however, the results presented here are a more complete report. The clay samples analysed in this study were collected in 2000 and 2002 and belong to an expanding data set to be assessed in combination with pottery from the Madaba Plain to better understand the ceramic technology of the region. 

Authors

Publication Type

Book Name

Excavations at Tall Jawa, Jordan. Volume 3: The Iron Age Pottery; CHANE 11/3

ISSN/ISBN

978-90-04-40909-5