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Collared-rim jars. The presence of large storage jars such as these at Canaanite hill-country sites had until recently been considered a second indication—the other being four-room-house architecture—of Israelite habitation. Distinguished by a collar-like ridge at the top of its short, wide neck, these jars could typically hold 10 to 15 gallons of water. Some archaeologists have suggested that collared-rim jars were the principal means of moving and storing water in the area until about 1000 B.C.E. The widespread use of iron tools at that time made possible the digging of cisterns in bedrock; collared-rim jars fell into disuse, victims of technological progress.