NEW DATA ON THE BLWMW IN THE LIGHT OF A NEW PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSIS - TYPOLOGY, PROVENANCE, CHRONOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION

The juglets that have been found in new archaeological excavations and classification of the juglets in light of the petrographic examinations has facilitated a renewed division of the juglets into different types.

The BLWMW juglets are a mutation of the globular White Painted V-VI juglets and not the successors of the Tell el Yahudiyeh ware. The earliest juglets of this family were made at the end of the Middle Cypriot Period 3 with a globular body. It is reasonable to assume that the difficulty in producing a globular juglet without a base on a wheel compelled the Cypriot potters to produce a juglet in a form as close as possible to the globular body, which was rooted in their conscience and professional experience, while attempting to implement the new technology that they had adopted. In a very early phase the Cypriot potters abandoned the globular form and produced a juglet with as narrow a base as possible and as globular a body as possible. These changes were made at the same time as the end of the Middle Bronze Age in the Land of Israel , the beginning of the Late Cypriot period. In a later phase producing juglets on a fast wheel compelled the Cypriot potters to produce the juglet with the elliptical body. Since these type juglets were very popular in the marketplaces of the Levant , the potters in the Land of Israel and along the Syrian/Lebanese coast began to produce juglets that are similar to them in form and fired them in the smoke-blacking technique that rendered them a black and grey hue.

Eli Yannai and Amir Gorzalczany