Tempering Types and Sources for Early Bronze Age Ceramics from Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira, Jordan

Abstract

Results of a petrographic analysis of inclusions in ceramics have shed new light on the cultural selection and processing of temper in different types of pottery from two Early Bronze Age sites in Jordan: Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira. Wadi sand was used in fine and common ware bowls, jars, and juglets from EB (Early Bronze Age) I through EB IV times at both sites. Quartz sand, weathered from outcrops of Nubian Sandstone, was used in fine creamware bowls, jars, and platter bowls produced at Numeira during EB III. Larger crushed fragments of limestone were used as temper in cooking pots and coarse hole-mouth jars at Bab edh-Dhra' during EB III and EB IV. Larger fragments of crushed basalt were used for production of bowls and platter bowls of burnished ware during EB III time at both sites. Since the early 1980s, there has been an increasing interaction between archaeology and the physical sciences. In this example, a geological analysis of tempering material has been extremely helpful in supplementing an objective classification of ceramic assemblages and in helping us understand the cultural implications of their manufacture.