Levantine pottery draws inspiration from the Ceramic traditions of the Levant. It spans from the Neolithic period to the present. The earliest developments involved lime plaster vessels, simple Neolithic wares, and decorated forms such as the Yarmukian Pottery. The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age are denoted by the introduction of the Potter's wheel, regional variations, and extrinsic influences from Cyprus, Syria, and the Aegean. It produced distinctive wares, such as Khirbet Kerak and Chocolate-on-white. With the emergence of the Iron Age, the pottery work reflected cultural identities, with Philistine, Samaria, Israelite, and Judea traditions, which developed unique styles. In the Classical, Byzantine, and Arab periods, local production persisted alongside imported slipware and new decorative techniques. Many of these traditions still continue to persist in the modern-age Palestinian pottery, which holds forms, clay, and designs that are rooted deeply in ancient practices.
Historic background
Neolithic period The history of pottery in the region begins in the Late Neolithic period, sometimes known as Pottery Neolithic (PN) or occasionally, based on a supposed local sequence of the site of Jericho, Pottery Neolithic A.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic (c. 8300 – c. 5500 BC)
There is no good evidence for pottery production in Early Neolithic (Pre-pottery Neolithic/PP) times, but the existence of pyrotechnology that allowed humans to attain temperatures in excess of 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) for reducing limestone to lime to make plaster, indicates a level of technology ripe for the discovery of pottery and its spread. In the PPN period portable vessels of lime plaster, called "vaisselles blanche" or "White Ware" served some of the functions that pottery later fulfilled. These vessels tended to be rather large and coarse and were somewhat rare. There are some indications that pottery may have been in use in the third and final phase of the Early Neolithic, PPNC (recognized Early Neolithic phases are, beginning with the earliest, PPNA, PPNB, and PPNC); however, such artifacts are rare, their provenance is equivocal and the issue remains in doubt. Approximately sometime in the late 6th millennium BC, pottery was introduced into the southern Levant, and it became widely used. The supposedly sophisticated forms and technological and decorative aspects suggested to archaeologists that it must have been received as an imported, technological advance from adjacent regions to the north and was not developed locally. The evidence for this hypothesis, however, remains equivocal due to the lack of documentation in the archaeological record. This hypothesis also does not take into account the bulk of simple, rudely fashioned vessels that were part of the ceramic repertoire of this period.
Pottery Neolithic (c. 5500 – c. 4500 BC)
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