Production and distribution of Geometrical-Painted (HMGP) and plain Hand-Made Wares of the Mamluk period: A case study from Northern Israel, Jerusalem and Tall Hisban

A program of petrographic analysis of Mamluk-period Hand-Made Geometrically Painted Ware (HMGP), supplemented by hand-made plain vessels and cooking pots, was undertaken as an offshoot of a wider study of the hand-made pottery industries of the 12th-16th centuries in Bilad al-Sham. The aims of the wider project were to establish a chronological framework for the development of HMGP, and to examine issues of production and distribution and their socio-economic implications. Methodological and practical considerations restricted the research area to northern Israel, with control groups from Jerusalem and Hisban. The petrographic analysis of 152 vessels identified three major petrographic groups, and eight minor ones. The results suggest that hand-made plain wares and HMGP were manufactured by multiple industries; that HMGP itself cannot be viewed as a single industry, or even as having a uniform production mode; and that both plain and decorated hand-made pottery are often products of a specialized craft, with regional and likely intra-regional distribution.