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October 13, 2006

Friday Pot Blogging

This week's pot is a small rather delicate bowl.

Iron Age IB Small Bowl

This bowl is very similar to the Iron Age I bowl from Megiddo Stratum VIB that Amiran, 109 #11, illustrates. It is somewhat smaller but the more of less straight sides, the flat bottom, the curved rim and the remnants of a red decorative slip around the rim put it in Northern Israel Iron Age I tradition. The absolute dates for the Iron Age I era is currently disputed. In fact, they have been disputed for quite a while. For reference, I will use Mazar's, (1990), 30, chronology and date the period from 1200 BCE to 1000 BCE. In the light of the Megiddo parallel and some other considerations, it would be best to assign this bowl to the Iron Age IB period, 1150 BCE -1000 BCE, as opposed to the Iron Age IA period. Perhaps I should do a post on Late Bronze and Iron Age absolute dates, but one reason I am now retired is that I got tired of beating my head against a wall. For those who can't wait for my post and have plenty of aspirin on hand, you might want to checkout Mazar's (2005) more recent efforts. Remember, other approaches are very much in play. Some, like Finkelstein, would move all the dates down 50 to 80 years. Thus, for Finkelstein, the range of dates for this bowl, particularly the lower end of the range, would be 50 to 80 years more recent than the dates I have used.

Because there are signs of calcium deposits on the broken edge of the chipped rim, I believe this bowl was chipped in antiquity. Whether or not it was chipped before it was deposited in a tomb (and it almost certainly is from a tomb) cannot be said. Rock fall in the tomb, sometime after it was placed there, could also account for both the chipped area and the calcium deposits. I believe that someone, not me, tried and failed to repair this bowl in modern times.

The bottom of the bowl has the typical spiral pattern that one sees in pottery that is cut off from the potters wheel with a loop of string or cord.

Iron Age IB Small Bowl, Bottom

Over the next couple of weeks, I will post a few additional bowls from Bronze and Iron Age Canaan.

Update: November 4, 2006
There is now a general table of contents to this series.

References:

Amiran, Ruth, Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land; From its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age, Jerusalem: Massada Press, 1969

Finkelstein, Israel, "The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: An Alternative View," Levant 28, 1996, 177-87 (as well as many other places)

Mazar, Amihai, "The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: Its history, the current situation, and a suggested resolution," in Levy, Thomas E. and Thomas Higham eds, The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science, London: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2005

Mazar, Amihai, The Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (ca. 10000-586 B.C.E.), New York: Doubleday, 1990

Posted by Duane Smith at October 13, 2006 6:40 PM | Read more on Archaeology |

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