Ceramics | Umm Al-Jimāl Project

Ceramic Finds at Umm Al-Jimāl

Pottery and its Meanings

While the towering basalt remains of Umm Al-Jimāl will quickly catch the eye of any visitor, a glance down to the sand reveals smaller but more plentiful remnants of civilization: fragments of pottery, known as potsherds, or simply sherds for short. Large or small, of varying color, thick or thin, made by wheel, hand or mold, from the 1st or the 13th century AD, all these sherds are like little books filled with information, which is perhaps why they are said to be 'read' by ceramicists.

Understanding the chronological development of sherds is critical, as this in turn helps to date features or deposits from the site: such as a layer of soil, the foundation for a wall, the plaster coating on a cistern, or a flagstone or dirt-packed floor. Sherds can be dated by their specific form (i.e. a cooking pot with a grooved lip), but also by their fabric, which is the clay and its natural or added inclusions. Knowledge of ceramic development is ever-evolving, as new stratigraphic information is collected and new research avenues pursued.

Yet pottery is not merely a chronological tool. The types of vessels found can help highlight activities taking place in certain parts of the site. For example, finding many fragments of cooking pots in one room can indicate a food preparation area; or discovering concentrated sherds from thick, sturdy jars and other large containers points to a storage function for the space. In addition, pottery can be scientifically analyzed for traces of organic material, which when considering cooking pots can reveal what types of meat, grains, spices, and other products were being used and consumed.

Finally, pottery must be understood as part of the economy of its time, which is especially important since ceramic material is highly durable in comparison to other goods—such as foodstuffs, cloth, barrels, baskets, and skins—which rarely survive. Some types of pottery, such as amphorae or bag-shaped jars, were containers for oil, wine, and other food products, and thus through the sherds left behind we can get a glimpse of what foods were being brought to the site during which periods. In addition, studying where sherds were produced during different periods and in what quantities they are found helps to illuminate Umm Al-Jimāl's connections with other sites and regions over its long lifespan.

Thus, these discarded fragments are key to understanding the chronological development of Umm Al-Jimāl and its inner social workings, but also illuminate the site's commercial connections to places far and near over the centuries of occupation.

The UJAP Ceramics Guide (2024)

For those interested in learning more technical details about the pottery found at Umm Al-Jimāl, download the new pottery guide.

The manual will be updated regularly as new information is added from the archaeological record. Please contact the project if more information or clarifications are needed.

The Ceramic Corpus of Umm Al-Jimāl

The bulk of ceramic material from the site spans the Nabataean/Early Roman (c. mid-/late 1st century AD) to Early Islamic (mid-/late 8th century) period, but there is also a smaller amount of material from the Middle and Late Islamic periods and perhaps a little beyond (c. 12th–early 20th century). Current ceramic knowledge of the later phases does not yet allow for the separation of pottery by smaller periods, save for the rare, well-dated glazed wares.

Watch the slideshow to see examples of pottery found at Umm Al-Jimāl. Period boundaries are not strict, as pottery forms and wares did not necessarily change as empires shifted; indeed, for Umm Al-Jimāl there are no great upheavals or abrupt breaks with tradition to be found during political, social, or religious transitions.

View the slideshow below to learn more about the types of pottery found at the site over the centuries:

Nabataean Painted Fineware

Perhaps the first occupation of Umm Al-Jimāl occurs in the Nabataean period, in the second half of the 1st century AD. Thus far, the Nabataean fineware found at the site dates from c. 70/80–100 AD. The pottery was produced in Wadi Musa, just outside Petra.

Hauran Ware

This diverse group of pottery made from basaltic clay appears in different forms, from small bowls to cooking pots to large storage jars. It was made in the Hauran (there is one known production site in southern Syria), and it was imported to Umm Al-Jimāl probably primarily in the Nabataean and Roman periods, as well as into the Early Byzantine period. This ware is very common at Umm Al-Jimāl, particularly in Late Roman contexts.

Table and Cooking Wares

In addition to Hauran ware, pottery made outside of the Hauran is also present in this period. The most common forms are cooking pots (left group), jars and jugs (right), but the pottery types were as varied as that of Hauran ware. Jerash is one known supplier, but much of this pottery cannot be assigned a specific place of production, simply because there are not many known kiln sites in the region.

Jerash Terracotta

The principal supplier of table and cooking wares from at least the Late Byzantine period through the Umayyad period was Jerash, a city which lies a little over 60km southwest of Umm Al-Jimāl along known routes. This pottery comes in many forms, such as jars, cooking pots, cups, bowls, and large bag-shaped jars. White paint is common, often presenting in wavy lines or swirls on jars and cooking pots (left) or as horizontal lines on bag-shaped jars (right).

African Red Slip

African red slip is the most common imported red-slipped ware of the Byzantine to Early Umayyad period at the site. It has a long lifespan at Umm Al-Jimāl (and in the region), with the range of earliest and latest form giving a span of the later 4th to the late 7th century AD. Stamped examples are rare at the site, but one particularly nice example was found in the lower deposits of House XVIII's courtyard and depicts a cherub carrying a wineskin.

Hauran Lamps

These lamps, which appear mostly in Early Byzantine contexts, are distinguished by their pentagonal or rectangular handles and their distinctive decoration motifs. Concentric circles and half-circles are common decorative schemes, but anthropomorphic depictions also occur. The production site of these lamps is unknown, but their distribution and the volcanic components in the lime-rich clay suggests an origin in the Hauran.

Jerash Lamps

The most common type of lamp from the Late Byzantine–Umayyad/Early ‘Abbasid period was manufactured at Jerash. Most of the examples from Umm Al-Jimāl have zoomorphic handles (left), and in these examples you can see a Greek cross depicted under the animalistic heads. The bases of the lamps sometimes displayed decorative symbols, or anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures, such as the large-footed bird found in House XVIII's courtyard (right).

Red-Painted and Unpainted Wares

Around the turn of the 8th century, new and distinctive pottery types were introduced in the region. This well-made pottery ranges in color from orange to pink to buff in hue. The pottery forms at Umm Al-Jimāl are primarily table and transport/storage wares: mainly small and large jars (left) and jugs. A common decoration is red paint, which can appear in different hues and in a variety of patterns (right). Cups and bowls are also present, in lesser numbers. Two kiln sites have been identified for the painted wares, at Jerash and Baysan, while others remain unknown.

Coarse Grey Storage Ware

From the Late Byzantine period through the 8th century, one of the most common types of storage ware was this range of large bowls and basins, which were made at Jerash. The color ranges from light grey to almost black, and the fabric can be semi-fine to very coarse. The body of the vessels was usually formed by hand, using coils, and the body was smoothed and the rim typically finished on the wheel. Combing or chisel decoration are common motifs.

Hand-/Mold- and Wheel-Made Basaltic Wares

Hand-made pottery with painted decoration has a very long history of production in the region from the Middle Islamic to Late Ottoman period. At Umm Al-Jimāl, the pottery ranges significantly in quality and coarseness and in the color of the slip and paint. Both wares made locally in the badiyah or Hauran (left), and others produced outside the basaltic plateau (right) have been found at the site. Thus far, the basaltic wares are present in significantly greater numbers. It is not yet possible to assign date ranges to this type of pottery.

Hand-/Mold- and Wheel-Made Basaltic Wares

Like HMGP, the other Middle Islamic to Late Ottoman pottery types cannot be dated at this time. What is clear from the corpus of later pottery, however, is that the majority of the finds were made from basaltic clay. This is in contrast to the Nabataean/Roman to Early Islamic corpus, where the basaltic pottery is in the minority, present primarily through Hauran ware. In these later phases at the site, a number of new basaltic pottery types appear: Most were manufactured by hand or mold, but some were made on the wheel. One distinctive hand-/mold-made ware was formed using very coarse basaltic clay. These examples show applied decoration on a body sherd, and combing on a large carinated bowl.

Ceramic Finds at Umm Al-Jimāl

Pottery and its Meanings

The UJAP Ceramics Guide (2024)

The Ceramic Corpus of Umm Al-Jimāl

© The Umm Al-Jimāl Archaeological Project (2025)