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 when ...

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 parti ...

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 por ...

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 thousan ...

, 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 part ...

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 Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ...

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 during h ...

archaeological sites in Syria such as

Tell Aswad Tell Aswad ( ar, تل أسود, "Hill Black"), Su-uk-su or Shuksa, is a large prehistoric, neolithic tell, about in size, located around from Damascus in Syria, on a tributary of the Barada River at the eastern end of the village of Jdeidet ...

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 Epipalaeolith ...

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 and 1 ...

and El Kowm. Similar

sherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s 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 highwa ...

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 wa ...

and

Ras Shamra ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , 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 = F ...

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 880 ...

, Hashbai,

Labweh Labweh ( ar, اللبوة), Laboué, Labwe or Al-Labweh is a village at an elevation of on a foothill of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. History The Neolithic settlements represented at Labw ...

Tell Jisr Tell Jisr, Tell el-Jisr or Tell ej-Jisr is a hill and archaeological site northwest of Joub Jannine in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. It was discovered in 1965-1966 by Lorraine Copeland and Peter Wescombe but the perimeter and extent of the find ...

and

Tell Neba'a Faour Neba'a Faour, Tell Neba'a Faour, Mashna'et el Faour, Neba Faour or Nebaa Faour is a large, low-lying archaeological tell mound in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon inhabited in the late 7th and early 6th millennium BC. It was initially discovered by Lo ...

in the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...

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 the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. 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

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 pottery developed in the western world the oldest being Dotted wavy line pottery from Africa. It was produced after the earliest examples from the independent phenomenon of the J� ...

, the first real pottery, came as a development from this limestone

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

Manufacturing

This crumbly form of proto-pottery was manufactured by pulverizing

, 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 add ...

. 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

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 Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

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.

References

{{Reflist Lebanese pottery Syrian pottery Ancient pottery Pre-Pottery Neolithic B

History

Manufacturing

See also

References