Iron Age II Domestic Pottery from Tell Halif

Foreword

This digital presentation of domestic pottery from Tell Halif, Field IV, is intended, in the first instance, as a “handbook” on late Iron II (8th c. BCE) ceramics for use in learning to recognize whole forms or in comparing pottery forms and characteristics. For that reason each vessel and sherd included in this digital handbook is accompanied by descriptions of the ware, treatment of the finished vessel, and assignment to pottery type. Second, because this CD concentrates on a specific corpus of ceramics, it cannot represent all late Iron II pottery types; however, the presentation coincidentally gives a fairly complete view of domestic pottery from two pillared buildings belonging to Stratum VIB at Tell Halif, at the time a fortified outpost of the kingdom of Judah of the 8th c. BCE . The collection also includes pottery found in a single house of Stratum VIA (also late 8th-early 7th c. BCE Iron Age), which had been occupied briefly, presumably by some of the survivors of the destruction of Tell Halif Stratum VIB.

Digital representation of ceramics permits a broad highlighting of the material on which conclusions about relative and absolute chronology and about specific activities within the 8th c. BCE pillared buildings have been and will be made. Each vessel, consequently, may be viewed from several angles in color photographs, a representational drawing; many will be viewable in three-dimensional renderings, QuickTime movies. What had been written about Iron Age pottery, for example, in such works as Ruth Amiran’s classic Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land (Jerusalem, Masada Press, 1969), has been here graphically illustrated, far more than had been possible in earlier publications; hopefully this digital handbook will prove to be a significant aid in the study of ancient ceramics. In any event, this handbook is presented as one attempt to progress in the study of the ancient world.

A further note is necessary to explain the limitation of this handbook to ceramics from Tell Halif alone. In the first instance, these materials derive from excavations in 1992, 1993, and 1999, which were co-directed by me (with Dr. Oded Borowski of Emory University.) That is, I have access to these ceramics. More
importantly, I have confidence in the stratigraphic location of each vessel shown. Most of the vessels in this digital handbook were found either on primary floors of Iron Age houses, or amidst the bricks, roof, and beams collapsed from upper floors. These vessels (for example, those marked Stratum VIB) are contemporary to each other, even though found in different houses. Similarly, sherds or whole vessels marked Stratum VIA were found in contexts that denote their contemporaneity. In a few instances vessels or sherds will be marked Stratum III or Stratum I, etc., indications of their stratigraphic locations at Tell Halif; they have been presented because they are further examples of types known to belong to the Stratum VIB or VIA pottery corpus. These examples from strata other than VIB or VIA were found in disturbed settings, i.e., in pits or trenches dug and backfilled by people at times later than the 8th c. BCE. In cutting into undisturbed strata of Tell Halif people occasionally displaced pottery--as well as other artifacts--back into the pit or trench from which they were pulled, since their aim was recovery of building stones from the buried house walls. Second, the digital handbook is something of an experiment to determine whether such a tool is useful to students of ancient ceramics. If the handbook proves serviceable, pottery from other periods and other sites may be added, or other digital volumes added to this one.

For this experimental handbook I have adopted (and adapted as necessary) much of the technical terminology for classification of the pottery from Ancient Pottery of Transjordan: An Introduction Utilizing Published Whole Forms by Ralph Hendrix, Philip Drey and J. Bjornar Storfjell (The Institute of Archaeology/Siegfried H. Horn Archaeological Museum, Berrien Springs, MI, 1996.) These authors made a serious, systematic effort to apply terminology with some precision to a field of study that to date has not reached consensus on many of its descriptive terms or its ways of presenting and interpreting ceramic data. Ancient Pottery of Transjordan (APOT) has given us another starting point for reaching, or at least adopting, consistency and some precision in language about ceramics from the ancient world; I have consciously utilized descriptions in this digital handbook to follow, as far as possible, the morphology and descriptive schemes presented in Ancient Pottery of Transjordan.


This digital presentation of domestic pottery from Tell Halif, Field IV, is intended, in the first instance, as a “handbook” on late Iron II (8th c. BCE) ceramics for use in learning to recognize whole forms or in comparing pottery forms and characteristics. For that reason each vessel and sherd included in this digital handbook is accompanied by descriptions of the ware, treatment of the finished vessel, and assignment to pottery type. Second, because this CD concentrates on a specific corpus of ceramics, it cannot represent all late Iron II pottery types; however, the presentation coincidentally gives a fairly complete view of domestic pottery from two pillared buildings belonging to Stratum VIB at Tell Halif, at the time a fortified outpost of the kingdom of Judah of the 8th c. BCE . The collection also includes pottery found in a single house of Stratum VIA (also late 8th-early 7th c. BCE Iron Age), which had been occupied briefly, presumably by some of the survivors of the destruction of Tell Halif Stratum VIB. Digital representation of ceramics permits a broad highlighting of the material on which conclusions about relative and absolute chronology and about specific activities within the 8th c. BCE pillared buildings have been and will be made. Each vessel, consequently, may be viewed from several angles in color photographs, a representational drawing; many will be viewable in three-dimensional renderings, QuickTime movies. What had been written about Iron Age pottery, for example, in such works as Ruth Amiran’s classic Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land (Jerusalem, Masada Press, 1969), has been here graphically illustrated, far more than had been possible in earlier publications; hopefully this digital handbook will prove to be a significant aid in the study of ancient ceramics. In any event, this handbook is presented as one attempt to progress in the study of the ancient world. A further note is necessary to explain the limitation of this handbook to ceramics from Tell Halif alone. In the first instance, these materials derive from excavations in 1992, 1993, and 1999, which were co-directed by me (with Dr. Oded Borowski of Emory University.) That is, I have access to these ceramics. More		importantly, I have confidence in the stratigraphic location of each vessel shown. Most of the vessels in this digital handbook were found either on primary floors of Iron Age houses, or amidst the bricks, roof, and beams collapsed from upper floors. These vessels (for example, those marked Stratum VIB) are contemporary to each other, even though found in different houses. Similarly, sherds or whole vessels marked Stratum VIA were found in contexts that denote their contemporaneity. In a few instances vessels or sherds will be marked Stratum III or Stratum I, etc., indications of their stratigraphic locations at Tell Halif; they have been presented because they are further examples of types known to belong to the Stratum VIB or VIA pottery corpus. These examples from strata other than VIB or VIA were found in disturbed settings, i.e., in pits or trenches dug and backfilled by people at times later than the 8th c. BCE. In cutting into undisturbed strata of Tell Halif people occasionally displaced pottery--as well as other artifacts--back into the pit or trench from which they were pulled, since their aim was recovery of building stones from the buried house walls. Second, the digital handbook is something of an experiment to determine whether such a tool is useful to students of ancient ceramics. If the handbook proves serviceable, pottery from other periods and other sites may be added, or other digital volumes added to this one. For this experimental handbook I have adopted (and adapted as necessary) much of the technical terminology for classification of the pottery from Ancient Pottery of Transjordan: An Introduction Utilizing Published Whole Forms by Ralph Hendrix, Philip Drey and J. Bjornar Storfjell (The Institute of Archaeology/Siegfried H. Horn Archaeological Museum, Berrien Springs, MI, 1996.) These authors made a serious, systematic effort to apply terminology with some precision to a field of study that to date has not reached consensus on many of its descriptive terms or its ways of presenting and interpreting ceramic data. Ancient Pottery of Transjordan (APOT) has given us another starting point for reaching, or at least adopting, consistency and some precision in language about ceramics from the ancient world; I have consciously utilized descriptions in this digital handbook to follow, as far as possible, the morphology and descriptive schemes presented in Ancient Pottery of Transjordan.