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Stone cup. Before the Jewish Quarter excavations, stone vessels like these were thought to be luxury items. But the author found them in almost every Jewish Quarter house—so many, of different shapes and sizes, that he concludes that these stone vessels were as common as coffee cups today.

Most stone drinking cups of this period were deep handleless bowls made on a lathe. But this cup with its carefully styled handle is handmade, probably the Jerusalem potter’s imitation of a style popular somewhere “abroad.”