‘Bloom of Youth’: a labelled Syro-Palestinian unguent jar

Abstract

The inscribed miniature jar shown in the photograph (Plate VI (c)) and drawing Fig. 1) is part of a collection of artifacts purchased many years ago in Palestine that was recently donated to Ashland University in Ohio (United States) by Professor and Mrs. Delbert H. Flora. Only 5.2 cm. in height and 5.5 cm. in diameter, the vessel has a biconical, wheelmade body and a string-cut base. The ware, which appears to be Syro-Palestinian, is moderately well levigated and fired light brown. Inclusions, so far as they can be discerned, consist predominantly of quartz and chert particles in various sizes, both angular and round, as well as of some small limestone and unidentified rock fragments. The upper portion of the exterior and the interior of the rim display remnants of a dark brownish-black slip imitating black gloss (‘glaze’); in places where it was thinly applied, the slip has become pale brown or has disappeared entirely.