Negevite pottery

Negevite pottery is the name given to a hand-made ware found in Iron Age sites of the Negev desert and southern Jordan. It was produced from coarse clay containing straw and other organic materials. It was discovered by C. Leonard Woolley and T.E. Lawrence in the northeastern Sinai, found again by Nelson Glueck in Tell el-Kheleifeh (who misunderstood the wares as crucibles for the Solomonic metallurgical activities there), and at last identified by Y. Aharoni as the wares manufactured and used by the people of the desert. Negevite wares show some similarities with Midianite pottery bowls (in form) and with Edomite pottery (in decoration).

References

• Y. Aharoni, M. Evenari, L. Shanan & N.H. Tadmor. 'The Ancient Desert Agriculture of the Negev, V: An Israelite Agricultural Settlement at Ramat Matred'. Israel Exploration Journal 10 (1960): 23-36, 97-111.
• M. Haiman & Y. Goren. ”'Negevite' Pottery: New Aspects and Interpretations and the Role of Pastoralism in Designating Ceramic Technology”. In O. Bar-Yosef & A. Khazanov (eds.) Pastoralism in the Levant: Archaeological Materials in Anthropological Perspectives. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 10. Madison, Prehistory Press, 1992, 143-152.
• E. Zapassky, I. Finkelstein & I. Benenson. 'Ancient Standards of Volume: Negevite Iron Age Pottery (Israel) as a Case Study in 3D Modeling'. Journal of Archaeological Science 33 (2006): 1734-1743.