Endnote 11 – Rediscovered! The Land of Geshur

Analysis of the clay suggests that the distinctive “egg” jars were made locally. The shapes of several very distinctive, rib-necked kraters show affinities to vessels from cemeteries at Irbid in Gilead, and analysis of the clay shows that they do in fact come from the Yarmuq area in the general region of Irbid (in modern Jordan to the southeast of the Golan). Cf. Rafik W. Dajani, “Four Iron Age Tombs from Irbid,” Annals of the Dept. of Antiquities of Jordan 11 (1966), pp. 88–101, esp. Pl. 34, nos. 1 and 2.Some of the storage jars from Tel Hadar have two handles, the tops of which are attached directly to the rim, an unknown phenomenon in Iron Age Israel. The only parallel to these amphoralike storage jars can be found in the Early Iron Age cemetery at Syrian Hama (Biblical Hamar).