Common and Uncommon Jewish Purity Concerns in City and Village in Early Roman Palestine and the Flourishing of the Stone Vessel Industry: A Summary and Discussion

Abstract

A stone vessel industry existed in early Roman Palestine (first century CE), and many of these utensils were either hand-carved or made on a lathe. The stone vessels were part of the tableware within Jewish households from different socio-economic levels of society in cities and villages. This research indicates that stone vessels were not as “common” in Jewish settlements of that time as has previously been thought. The article’s purpose is to sum up the new archaeological data on the subject. It deals with manufacturing processes, morphological aspects. This article also offers a refined chronological scheme for stone vessels (late first century BCE–mid-second century CE) in Judea, and it incorporates hitherto unpublished data from the excavation of a quarry-cave manufacturing site at Tel el-Ful, as well as providing detailed information on the typological frequency of stone vessels from sites at Jerusalem, notably at Mount Zion.