A Pottery workshopat ahihud and its relationshiptothe jar industry in the northeastern zevulun valleyand western galilee duringthe roman period

At the site, located along the eastern edge of the Zevulun Valley, two strata were discerned. Earlier Stratum II, dated to the beginning of the Roman period (50 BCE-135 CE), yielded the corner of a structure and a wall fragment. In Stratum I, dated from the Middle to the Late Roman periods (135-450 CE), pottery kilns were found, as well as a pottery production waste dump. A total of 1038 rim sherds were unearthed, mostly associated with the pottery workshop debris recovered from a pile of wasters (Stratum I, Area B). The assemblage includes tableware (bowls, kraters), cooking (pots, saucepans) and storage (jars, amphora) vessels, jar lids, antiliya jars and stands. Thirty-eight sherds were subjected to petrological provenience analysis, and four main petrological groups were identified: vessels produced at the site, vessels either manufactured at the site or brought there, vessels produced outside the site, and varia. The expertise of this workshop lay in the production of four types of barrel jars. The workshop at Ahihud is an important addition to other known pottery workshops in the northeastern Zevulun Valley and western Galilee during the Roman and Byzantine periods (mid-first century BCE-mid-seventh century). These jars probably served as containers for olive oil and wine.