The coil construction method or coil building technique was used for millennia throughout the world to shape wet clay info desired forms. The process begins by rolling moist clay into long flexible coiled pieces, bending them into the shape of the item’s base and placing the coils atop one another step by step to increase its height and thickness. This permits the building of wider and taller walls without risking a collapse. Working with fresh clay allows one to apply minimum pressure and easily join coils and other elements of a vessel together while building the vessel desired. The paddle and anvil technique aids smoothing and finishing a coil-built item if a flat stone or wood “anvil” is placed beside the vessel’s inside wall and a curved or flat wood paddle lightly beats the outside wall to complete the article’s shape while ridding the clay of extra moisture. A potter may also apply a slip which can be in varying colors and may be used as decoration and/or to make the piece a less porous. Burnishing can further compact, polish, and smooth the outside of a pot by rubbing it with a hard tool of some kind to compresse the clay and make it less permeable.
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This ancient Judean vessel created during Israel’s Biblical Period was hand shaped using the coil method. It likely held potable liquids, cooking oil or other items. This is a rather sophisticated piece for Bronze Age vessel made millennia ago.
This small juglet has a globular body, a round base, a very short neck, a wide mouth and short handles on each side. Like many other small Second Temple Period (circa 597-300BCE) pieces it is a functional item covered with a black slip and burnished. Small juglets like this “…were finished to a higher quality and were used for cosmetics and scented oils [and perfumes and ointments].” (Frank) This piece is intact, in good condition and a genuine piece from ancient history. There are two chips on the mouth rim, body dents, and burnish losses, all expected for its age and longer than two millennia old burial.
Source
Tom Frank, “Imagining the Past: Archeology and the Bible: a juglet to anoint,” September, 2014.
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