New Typological Analyses of Early Bronze Age Holemouth Jars from Tel Arad and Southern Sinai
Avshalom Karasik, Uzy Smilansky, Itzhaq Beit-Arieh · Tel Aviv · 2005
A novel computerized method for the morphological typology of ceramics was applied to the assemblages of Early Bronze holemouth jars found at Tel Arad and in Southern Sinai. This analysis demonstrates, in agreement with commonly accepted conclusions, that the holemouth cooking-pots found in Arad, which were made of materials alien to the Arad environment, and the holemouth jars found in Southern Sinai cannot be differentiated by their rim morphology. Nevertheless, in contrast to the common belief that the rims of holemouth jars in Arad are all similar, independent of their petrographic composition, we show that there are small but statistically significant differences between these two groups, as well as between the locally-produced vessels from Arad and Southern Sinai.