White Ware or "Vaisselle Blanche", effectively a form of
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
used to make vessels, is the first precursor to
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
developed in the Levant that appeared in the
9th millennium BC
The 9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 BC to 8001 BC (11 to 10 thousand years ago). In chronological terms, it is the first full millennium of the current Holocene epoch that is generally reckoned to have begun by 9700 BC (11.7 thousand ...
, during the pre-pottery (aceramic)
neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
period.
[Contenson, Henri and Courtois L., A propos des vases en chaux. Recherches sur leur fabrication et leur origine, Paléorient 5, 1979, p. 177-182.] It is not to be confused with "whiteware", which is both a term in the modern ceramic industry for most finer types of pottery for tableware and similar uses, and a term for specific historical types of
earthenware made with clays giving an off-white body when fired.
History
White Ware was commonly found in
PPNB
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is part of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, a Neolithic culture centered in upper Mesopotamia and the Levant, dating to years ago, that is, 8800–6500 BC. It was typed by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon duri ...
archaeological sites in Syria such as
Tell Aswad,
Tell Abu Hureyra
Tell Abu Hureyra ( ar, تل أبو هريرة) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the Upper Euphrates valley in Syria. The tell was inhabited between 13,000 and 9,000 years ago in two main phases: Abu Hureyra 1, dated to the Epipalaeoli ...
,
Bouqras
Bouqras is a large, oval shaped, prehistoric, Neolithic Tell, about in size, located around from Deir ez-Zor in Syria.
Excavation
The tell was discovered in 1960 by Dutch geomorphologist, Willem van Liere. It was excavated between 1960 an ...
and
El Kowm
El Kowm or Al Kawm is a circular, gap in the Syrian mountains that houses a series of archaeological sites. The El Kowm oasis is located northeast of Palmyra in Syria, near Al-Sukhnah. It shows some of the longest and most important cultural s ...
.
Similar
sherds were excavated at
'Ain Ghazal
El Ain ( ar, العين), Al Ain, or Ain is a village at an elevation of on a foothill of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the Baalbek District of the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon.
It is famous for agriculture and trade, located on the highw ...
in northern
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
.
White
pozzolanic
Pozzolans are a broad class of siliceous and aluminous materials which, in themselves, possess little or no cementitious value but which will, in finely divided form and in the presence of water, react chemically with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) ...
ware from
Tell Ramad
Tell Ramad ( ar, تل رماد) is a prehistoric, Neolithic tell at the foot of Mount Hermon, about southwest of Damascus in Syria. The tell was the site of a small village of , which was first settled in the late 8th millennium BC.
The tell ...
and
Ras Shamra
)
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, image_size=300
, alt =
, caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit
, map_type = Near East#Syria
, map_alt =
, map_size = 300
, relief=yes
, location = Latakia Governorate, Syria
, region = ...
is considered to be a local imitation of these limestone vessels.
It was also evident in the earliest neolithic periods of
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
,
Hashbai,
Labweh,
Tell Jisr and
Tell Neba'a Faour in the
Beqaa Valley,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
.
It has been noted that this type of pottery was more prevalent and dated earlier in the Beqaa than at Byblos.
A mixed form was found at
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
where the clay was coated in a limestone slip, in both plain and shell combed finishes.
The similarities of White Ware and overlapping time periods with later clay firing methods have suggested that
Dark Faced Burnished Ware
Dark faced burnished ware or DFBW is the second oldest form of History of pottery in Palestine, pottery developed in the western world the oldest being Dotted wavy line pottery from Africa.
It was produced after the earliest examples from the ind ...
, the first real pottery, came as a development from this limestone
prototype.
Manufacturing
This crumbly form of proto-pottery was manufactured by pulverizing
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
, then heating it to a temperature in excess of 1000 °C. This reduced it to lime which could be mixed with ashes, straw or gravel and made into a white or grey
lime plaster
Lime plaster is a type of plaster composed of sand, water, and lime, usually non-hydraulic hydrated lime (also known as slaked lime, high calcium lime or air lime). Ancient lime plaster often contained horse hair for reinforcement and pozzolan ...
.
The plaster was initially so soft that it could be moulded, before hardening through air drying into a rigid cement. The plaster was formed into vessels by coiling to serve some of the functions of later
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
pottery. White Ware vessels tended to be rather large and coarse, often found in the dwelling rooms where they were made indicating their use for stationary storage of dry goods.
Designs included a range of large and heavy rectangular tubs, circular vessels and smaller bowls, cups and jars.
Imprints of
basketry on the exterior of some vessels suggest that some were shaped into large basket shapes.
It is likely these larger vessels were mainly used for dry goods storage.
Some of the White Ware vessels found were decorated with incisions and thick stripes of red ochre.
Other uses of this material included plastering of skulls and as a floor or wall covering.
Some lime plaster floors were also painted red, and a few were found with designs imprinted on them.
See also
*
Cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
*
Concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
*
Geopolymers
Geopolymers are inorganic, typically ceramic, alumino-silicate forming long-range, covalently bonded, non-crystalline (amorphous) networks. Obsidian (volcanic glass) fragments are a component of some geopolymer blends. Commercially produced geopol ...
References
{{Reflist
Lebanese pottery
Syrian pottery
Ancient pottery
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B