Studies on pottery of the south Levantine Early Bronze Age (Early Bronze Ages I, II and III) often use terms such as 'wares' to designate specific types of ceramics identified with regional and chronological niches in the archaeological record. While some such designations appear to be valid, as they refer to groups of objects defined by very specific parameters, others represent broad categories with poorly defined parameters. This paper presents a proposal for some specifically defined groups, traditions of ceramic production called 'wares' and 'styles', with indications of their temporal and regional distributions. It further suggests abandoning some commonly used designations that offer too little specificity, thus making them less than useful for archaeological research and discussion.

The archaeological approach to the study of medieval pottery from northern Israel and its division into four distinct pottery assemblages enables us to gain a better understanding of chronology, typology, production and distribution of ceramics in medieval Levant. The sets presented here date from the late Fatimid, the Crusader and the Mamluk periods (late 11th to 15th centuries). In the first stage they were defined on the basis of solid data from well-stratified archaeological excavations. In the second stage they were studied as a group and as individual pottery types. These ceramic assemblages sometimes show continuity in pottery types and at other times they indicate a change.

"In September 2005 the IAA Reports series introduced a new book, POTTERY OF THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID, AND MAMLUK PERIODS IN ISRAEL. This book, designed as an easy-to-use catalogue, is a first attempt to collect and distinguish pottery of these periods.In the modern state of Israel a considerable number of sites with strata from the Crusader, Ayyubid, and Mamluk periods have been excavated throughout the last years. These sites yielded a wealth of ceramic mate­rial that is thus far not well known. POTTERY OF THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID, AND MAMLUK PERIODS IN ISRAEL was written in order to fill this lacuna. It presents an up-to-date survey of pottery from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries excavated in Israel through 2004. It is organized as a wide-ranging typology that includes the necessary scientific apparatus, 53 pottery figures illustrating the various types, and 34 color plates that vividly demonstrate the colors of the clay, glazes and decorations. The catalogue is divided into three part: Part I presents the glazed table wares, comprised largely of glazed bowls, and less of closed glazed vessels. There is a wide range of locally produced wares, as well as wares imported from Egypt, Syria, Byzantium, Italy, Spain, and North Africa, and China. Part II deals with simple, mostly unglazed, domestic and industrial wares, as well as glazed cooking wares. Part III discusses the common oil lamps. The initial aim of the book is to assist the field archae­ologist in pottery sorting, as well as to help the interested ceramic specialists, students and readers in identifying and dating the various types. The book is dedicated to the memory of Amir Drori (1937-2005), who was the founder and first director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (1989-2000)."