The Pottery Assemblage of Jerusalem?s Neo-Babylonian Destruction Level: A Review and Discussion

JUAN MANUEL TEBES

Antiguo Oriente

Centro de Estudios del Antiguo Cercano Oriente, Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2011 vol. 9 p. 277 - 342

1667-9202

This paper studies the pottery of Jerusalem corresponding to the very Late Iron II (mid 7th to early 6th centuries BCE) that is scattered throughout the modern-day excavation reports. A typology of five functional groups and twenty-five taxonomic subgroups is built, based on pottery retrieved from clear loci that represent the Neo-Babylonian destruction level or shortly before. I will focus attention on the chronology of each pottery type, and how they can be related to parallels in other contemporary sites. The analysis of the resultant pottery types and their distribution in the city confirms that Jerusalem passed through an era of political and economic centralization, urban expansion and industrial development, albeit with few connections with the contemporary interregional trade networks.