Palestinian pottery refers to pottery produced in the region of Palestine throughout the ages. It forms part of the wider tradition of Levantine pottery, though it is also a distinctive, living handicraft still produced by Palestinians today. The history and practice of the living craft is the focus of this article. There is a definite continuity in the development of this handicraft throughout the many different eras in the history of Palestine in terms of the materials and forms used. Pottery was produced by both men and women, the former primarily in workshops using a potter's wheel, the latter largely working at home to produce essential household goods. The pottery traditions have suffered from the Nakba and the encroachment of modern life and mass produced household good and wares, which effectively ended the women's pottery tradition. The craft continues to be practiced by Palestinians in workshops on both sides of the Green Line and by artists seeking to preserve Palestinian culture in the diaspora.
History
Continuity through the ages Modern Palestinian pots, bowls, jugs and cups, are similar in shape, fabric and decoration to their ancient equivalents. Winifred Needler, Deputy Keeper of the Near Eastern Department at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology writes in Palestine: Ancient and Modern (1949) that this continuity demonstrates "how persistently the potter's craft clung to tradition through the centuries". R. A. Stewart Macalister, in his work The Excavation of Gezer (1912), underlines this point prefacing his overview of Palestinian pottery throughout the ages by noting that: "... the division into periods [of Palestinian pottery] is to some extent a necessary evil, in that it suggests a misleading idea of discontinuity—as though the periods were so many water-tight compartments with fixed partitions between them. In point of fact, each period shades almost imperceptibly into the next." Commenting further on modern examples of Palestinian pottery, Needler notes that the clay used is of much the same composition as the ancient examples and is shaped, smoothed and baked in the same way, with the surfaces often decorated in similar painted, incised, or moulded techniques. "Ramallah" ware, a thick-walled, pinkish drab pottery painted with simple geometric and plant designs in red, is handmade; as are the "frying pan" and the home-made braziers. Other pottery is wheel-made, largely undecorated, but often with a glossy black glaze and crude designs in bright red. An example of a regional type of pottery that was produced almost unchanged from the Early Bronze Age to the time of the Muslim conquest of Palestine and beyond is Negevite pottery produced by the nomadic pastoralists of the highlands of the Negev (Naqab) desert. This coarse, undecorated ware was centered on meeting household needs for cooking pots, and they were made without a wheel using the coiling method on a mat. The flat-bottomed pots had vertical or flared sides and were very similar to the Qurayya and Edomite pottery cooking pots, and were found alongside the former in abundance at mining sites in the Timna valley in Arabah. Because of its ubiquity throughout the ages, it presence in given strata alone is not very useful for dating purposes.
One pottery vessel whose production emerged to meet a need for storage and transport vessels for Gaza wine, is the Gaza jar, which was produced from the 1st century until at least the early 7th, possibly later.
Arab period In exploring the similarities throughout the different eras, Macalister discusses Palestinian pottery found in early Arab villages in ruins around the site of Gezer in the early 20th century, and its shared characteristics with the ancient and modern pottery produced in Palestine. Of the pottery from the Arab period, he notes: "... there seem to have been large globular jars, not unlike the Pre-Semitic and First Semitic barrel-shaped jars." He describes them as having "ledge-handles, though of a different shape from the early ledge-handles", and continues to write that, "... this kind of handle is still made in native pottery." Further, he notes that jar-covers from this period are strikingly similar to those of the "earliest type of ware", the "Second Semitic jar-covers, with two loops in the middle of the saucer". The oil lamps produced during the Arab period are "either of the Hellenistic type, with long spout, or the Byzantine slipper form". The "Third Semitic lamp" which almost completely disappears during the Hellenistic period, comes into use once again during the Arab period and Macalister notes that it is still frequently used among the Arab inhabitants of Palestine. Some of the linear decoration techniques also show a "startling resemblance to the painted ornament of the Second Semitic Period". Macalister notes that the major differences are that "The slip and the paint have a fatter, richer texture in the Arab ware than in the Amorite, and the painted devices are more geometrical, more mechanical, and also more minute and 'finicking' in the later than in the earlier pottery." As for similarities with the Roman period, horizontal ribbing, a key characteristic of Roman era pottery, "is as common in this period as in the Roman, but it seems to differ in outline". Large water jars known zīrs were produced in this period throughout the Levant and were also used for storing and transporting olive oil and molasses, like the grape variety dibs. The form and construction of these vessels remain largely unchanged for centuries, characterized by a flat base and bulbous body generally produced using coils of clay with a narrower neck that was wheel thrown and attached to that base and an interior often waterproofed using bitumen.
Two main Palestinian pottery traditions still practiced today have been definitively traced back to at least the period of Mamluk rule (1250-1517) in Palestine: pottery produced by women and pottery produced by men. Women's pottery was produced by hand, primarily at home and without a wheel, and focused primarily on useful household items, like cooking pots and water vessels. Conversely, men's pottery was more likely to be made in workshops using a wheel, with a more varied output of products.
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