White Ware
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White Ware or "Vaisselle Blanche", effectively a form of limestone plaster used to make vessels, is the first precursor to clay pottery developed in the Levant that appeared in the 9th millennium BC, during the pre-pottery (aceramic) neolithic period.[1][2][3] It is not to be confused with "whiteware", which is both a term in the modern ceramic industry for most finer types of pottery for tableware and similar uses, and a term for specific historical types of earthenware made with clays giving an off-white body when fired.
White Ware was commonly found in PPNB archaeological sites in Syria such as Tell Aswad, Tell Abu Hureyra, Bouqras and El Kowm.[1] Similar sherds were excavated at 'Ain Ghazal in northern Jordan.[4][5] White pozzolanic ware from Tell Ramad and Ras Shamra is considered to be a local imitation of these limestone vessels.[6] It was also evident in the earliest neolithic periods of Byblos, Hashbai, Labweh, Tell Jisr and Tell Neba'a Faour in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.[7] It has been noted that this type of pottery was more prevalent and dated earlier in the Beqaa than at Byblos.[8] A mixed form was found at Byblos where the clay was coated in a limestone slip, in both plain and shell combed finishes.[6] The similarities of White Ware and overlapping time periods with later clay firing methods have suggested that Dark Faced Burnished Ware, the first real pottery, came as a development from this limestone prototype.[9]