Women, teenagers worked as potters in ancient Israel, scholars show [Gath]

Jerusalem Post ^ | July 1, 2020 | Rossella Tercatin

[SunkenCiv]

Over 3,500 years ago, a potter finished shaping a new jug in Gath, a settlement in the Judean foothills overlooking the southern coastal plain of Israel. Before firing the vessel in the kiln, maybe the artisan looked at it, even touched it one last time, perhaps feeling proud of the work, without imagining that a couple of millennia later, a group of researchers would not only find the artifact, but also identify the fingerprints on its surface, reconstructing the age and gender of the jug's ancient manufacturer.

As explained to The Jerusalem Post by Bar Ilan University archaeologist Aren Maeir, the director of the excavations at the site known as Tell es-Safi/Gath, some 2,000 or 3,000 people probably lived in the settlement during the Early Bronze Age...

Based on the findings, the paper suggests that even though pottery-making was a male dominated craft, women and adolescents participated as well. As pointed out in the study, "multiple hands were normally involved in vessel shaping and adults and teenagers had different roles in manufacture" since "two-thirds of vessels in our sample (n = 31/47, 66%) have two or more prints classified in different age/sex categories."

One of the hypotheses is that those younger artisans were potters-in-training.

[SunkenCiv]

Or, they were slaves.

Aerial photo of Tell es-Safi/Gath (Prof. Aren M. Maeir, The Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, Bar-Ilan University)

[SunkenCiv]

[Tell It Right]

Wasn’t Gath a Phillistine city?

[SunkenCiv]

Eventually.

[Covenantor]

One of the hypotheses is that those younger artisans were potters-in-training

No brain strainer that. Keep artistic and tech skills in the family to produce marketable items. Teaching kids to make the more mundane every day items, while the family master artisan produces the decorative high demand high price items. Apprenticeship has ancient roots and high art of the day was much in demand. Same human desires as today...

[elbook]

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Men’s large hands and strength were needed for so many other tasks.

So women and children (and the elderly??) making pots is some kind of Mystery ???

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