Glossary: How to Date a Cooking Pot

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Sir Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) first recognized that lowly potsherds could help pinpoint the date of the archaeological strata in which they were found. Building on Petrie’s insight, William Foxwell Albright (1891–1971) and his students defined the pottery features associated with the ancient Near East’s various chronological periods.

While the type of clay used, method of manufacture (wheel-made, handmade or a combination of the two), decoration, firing method at low or high temperature and size are all important for dating a ceramic artifact, the single most crucial criterion is shape. And though the overall shape is significant, rims, bases and, sometimes, handles are more diagnostic than body sherds. There are two caveats, however. First, a standard pottery type may have had many variants. Second, similar ceramic types from different sites may not all date to the same period; a new manufacturing technique or style may have been introduced at different times in different locales, and some ceramic types may have survived longer in certain places than at others.

One of the most helpful ceramic types for dating purposes is the cooking pot. For one thing, cooking-pot shapes for the various archaeological periods are by now well established, and, for another, cooking pots (or their sherds) are ubiquitous! Becoming an expert in pottery typology is a lifetime pursuit, but nothing can take the place of direct contact with the pottery itself. (In addition to its observable features, pottery has a “feel” to it.) To an excavator’s trained eye, these humble products of the past are a godsend.

Though the somewhat clinical descriptions of cooking pots that follow may not get the pulses racing of BAR’s readers, the dating of pottery often lies at the heart of important debates among archaeologists. The recent discussions over when Jericho was destroyed^a and when and where Israel emerged in Canaan^b are good cases in point.

Before we begin looking at particular time periods, a word about pottery drawings. By convention, the left half of the drawing depicts the outside of the pot while the right side shows the pot as if it had been sliced vertically through the center; solid black indicates the thickness of the wall or rim of the vessel.

Early Bronze Age (c. 3100–2200 B.C.E.)

Most cooking pots of this period are hole-mouth vessels (without necks) with globular bodies and rounded or flat bases, though some are pear-shaped with a flat base. One sure indication of an Early Bronze Age date for pottery is the ledge handle; however not all finds from this period bear this feature.

A very distinctive group of pots dates to 2650–2350 B.C.E. and is known as Khirbet Kerak ware (after the site in the Galilee where it was first found). This handmade pottery has an S-shaped profile and appears top heavy because the base is always smaller than the body or mouth. The ware is covered inside and out with a well-burnished (rubbed to a sheen) heavy slip (watered down clay applied to a vessel before firing). Using a technique we still do not understand, ancient potters fired the vessels so that they are black on the outside and red on the inside.

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Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 B.C.E.)

Cooking pots from the first years of this period generally have straight sides and a row of holes just below the rim, often with an applied rope decoration below the holes. While such pots were still being produced in the latter half of the Middle Bronze Age, the most common pots by then were round in shape with a profile resembling a long-tailed S. The vessels typically have an inner gutter running around the bottom of the rim, which appears rounded in section. Some pots have folded rims and some have a single loop handle attached from the rim to the shoulder; two-handled vessels, however, are unknown at this time.

The increased use of the potter’s wheel produced much higher quality ceramic ware and a greater range of styles than in preceding periods. One very important innovation was the introduction in some vessels of carination—a sharp ridge on the outer surface of the body of the vessel caused by an abrupt change in the direction of the vessel’s slope. This feature, while known in the first half of the Middle Bronze Age, became widespread in the second half of the period and continued into the Late Bronze Age.

Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 B.C.E.)

These pots are distinctive and fairly easy to recognize. Their rims are the best guide for distinguishing the various phases or changes through which these pots evolved. The everted (turning outward) triangular rim (in section) appears early in this period and predominates later in the period. A unique feature of Late Bronze Age pots is a double rim, designed perhaps to hold a lid. For the most part, pots from this period are handleless. Color varies from brownish red to near black and often contains large amounts of white calcite grits.

Iron Age I (1200–1000 B.C.E.)

Continuing the traditions of the Late Bronze Age, the pots from Iron Age I have elongated rims that appear even more triangular when viewed from the side than earlier pots. These vessels, too, are handleless and have rounded bases and carination on their shoulders. The clay typically contains white calcite grits. There are many variations among Iron Age I vessels, but regional differences between those found in the north (at such places as Hazor and Megiddo) and in the south (Beth-Shemesh) are not as great as in the following periods.

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Iron Age II (1000–586 B.C.E.)

Several changes in the shapes of cooking pots make their appearance at this time. During the first two centuries of the period, the carination appears lower on the vessel than it had previously. Rims still look triangular when viewed in cross-section but tend to be shorter. Single and double handles become more common, as do vessels with globular shapes—a shape that will dominate the remainder of the Iron Age.

Around 800–750 B.C.E. abrupt changes occur in the shape of cooking pots. In the north (Hazor, Megiddo, Samaria and Taanach, for example), almost all the pots have two handles and squat bodies with little or no carination. Rims are grooved or ridged, though the triangular elongated rim does not completely disappear.

Sites in the south (Beth-Shemesh and Ein Gedi, for example) produced pots similar to those in the north but with variations unique to the region: These pots are deep, with a longer, grooved neck and feature two handles attached from the rim to the shoulder.

Persian Period (540–332 B.C.E.)

The Persian period saw a proliferation of styles, with the differences tied to specific geographic locations. Archaeologist Ephraim Stern has identified no less than eight prominent styles with several distinguishing characteristics: “globular sack-shaped” bodies; very short or, in some cases, no necks; and two handles that extend from the rim to the shoulders. Some pots accepted dome-shaped lids, a style of cookware that became more common in the succeeding Hellenistic period. The covered pot, far left, is drawn as seen from the outside; a cutaway area, upper right, shows the wall and rim of the vessel in section.

Hellenistic and Roman Periods (332 B.C.E.–324 C.E.)

Three types of cooking pots dominated the Hellenistic and Roman periods. One group consisted of spherical or globular vessels of varying sizes, some of which were designed to hold lids. Almost all of these have two loop handles extending from the rim to the shoulders. The body of the vessel may be either smooth or rippled (often called ribbing).

The second type, the so-called casserole, emerged during the Hellenistic period and became abundant during the Roman period. These shallow cooking pots took various forms and were typically used with lids.

Frying pans constituted the third group. Many of these shallow vessels with flat bases and gently sloping sides had clay cylinders protruding from one end; they are thought to have held wooden handles.

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Three extremely useful books for further reading about ancient pottery are Ruth Amiran, Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land (Jerusalem: Masada Press, 1969); Ephraim Stern, Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period 538–332 B.C. (Warminster, UK: Aris & Philips, 1982) and Paul W. Lapp, Palestinian Ceramic Chronology: 200 B.C.–A.D. 70) (New Haven: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1961).

Sir Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) first recognized that lowly potsherds could help pinpoint the date of the archaeological strata in which they were found. Building on Petrie’s insight, William Foxwell Albright (1891–1971) and his students defined the pottery features associated with the ancient Near East’s various chronological periods.