Guide
Ancient Jewish Material Culture
4th Century BCE–6th Century CE
By Carol Bakhos
Related Primary Sources
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Hellenistic Pottery
Pottery is the most widely surviving material from the ancient world. In Jewish homes, one could find a wide range of locally produced ceramic vessels—jars, kraters, flasks, jugs, juglets, bottles…
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Grooved Glass Bowl
In addition to pottery, many Jewish homes made use of glass vessels, which became more affordable with the invention of free blowing around the mid-first century BCE and became especially common from…
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Bronze Vessels and Utensils
Mining and metalworking were important industries in Hellenistic and Roman Palestine. Iron was the most common metal, used for agricultural tools…
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Chalkstone Wares
A unique type of vessel made of chalkstone—comprising a wide range of hand-carved and lathe-turned tableware and storage jars—emerged in the land of Israel in the late first…
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Eastern Terra Sigillata
These red-glazed ceramics, which were produced in the eastern Mediterranean, were the most commonly imported fine wares in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. They became particularly common…
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Blown Glass Jugs and Juglets
The free blowing of glass was invented by Syrian craftsmen in the first century BCE, somewhere along the Syro-Palestinian coast. The glass workshop in Jerusalem, which was active during the early…