A study in volume 117 of the Israel Antiquities Authority journal ‘Atiqot presents the most detailed account to date of miniature black juglets (MBJs) recovered from two Iron Age II tombs in the Mamilla burial ground west of Jerusalem’s Old City. Author Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa analyses 169 pottery vessels from Tomb 5 and sixty-seven from Tomb 7, including fifty-two MBJs, to argue that the vessels were introduced as burial gifts early in the cemetery’s history and disappeared from use before the Babylonian invasion .
Excavation background
Mamilla was cleared for redevelopment in 1989, exposing about seventy-five cut-rock graves; a dozen dated to Iron II. Tombs 5 and 7 were intact and were excavated in 1989-1991 under Israel Antiquities Authority permit A-1682, with field supervision by Eli Shukron and Ya’akov Billig . Tomb 5 contains a central pit, three rock-hewn shelves and an unusually deep ovoid repository cut partly below the eastern shelf; Tomb 7 is a smaller chamber entered from a dromos and provided with its own repository .
Distribution of the juglets
Table 4 of the paper lists forty-nine MBJs in Tomb 5—twenty in the lowest repository layer, nine in the next, five in the third, two in the fourth and one in an upper locus—together with eight on the chamber floor and three on the shelves. Tomb 7 yielded only three examples . The concentration of MBJs in the lower strata of the Tomb 5 repository led the author to place their primary deposition in the initial phase of use, while later layers contained fewer or none. Red globular juglets, similar in size and form, appear throughout all four layers and in the upper loci, indicating continuous deposition after MBJs ceased to be supplied .
Tomb 5 sequence
The repository below Tomb 5 drops 1.75 m beneath the eastern shelf and extends to 2.55 m below the northern shelf, allowing stratified recovery of artefacts . The bottom two layers contained Iron IIB–C material; layers above them held Persian-period pottery, and the highest locus produced Hasmonean vessels and early second-century BCE coins, showing continued but diminished use long after the juglets disappeared . Reich notes that when the repository finally filled, the family vacated the tomb, pushing remaining bones and goods into the pit and leaving the shelves empty .
Tomb 7 sequence
Tomb 7, roughly fifteen metres north-west of Tomb 5, retained all its Iron IIB–C assemblage in the chamber and a partly filled repository; the latest pottery dates to the seventh–early sixth centuries BCE . The lesser number of MBJs in this tomb and their equal positioning with red juglets suggest that the miniature black type was already uncommon by the time Tomb 7 was cut.
Comparison with other sites
An appended data set shows that MBJs form less than 0.5 percent of Iron Age pottery in most stratified settlements yet rise to double-digit percentages in tomb contexts. At Mamilla the vessels account for twenty-nine percent of the Tomb 5 assemblage; Lakhish Tomb 1002 held at least sixty examples among more than six hundred items; and Jerusalem’s Ketef Hinnom Tomb 25, with two hundred fifty-five vessels, contained none . The author concludes that MBJs were consistently selected for funerary use and rarely circulated in habitation layers .
Manufacture and colour
Both recognised MBJ forms—one with a straight long neck and one with a shorter neck—were handmade from clay fired in a reducing atmosphere that turned the surface dark grey to black. Before firing, potters vertically burnished the exterior. Reich attributes the colour to an oxygen-poor kiln environment that converted iron oxides to a black ferrous state, a method applied almost exclusively to these miniature vessels . The author records red versions of the same shape at Mamilla and elsewhere and suggests they may emerge from workshops that lacked the specialised firing practice .
Chronology
The earliest MBJs appear in tenth-century contexts at Rosh Zayit and Yoqneʿam. The type becomes common in Judah during the eighth century, crosses into the Jerusalem region and declines during the seventh century. By the Persian period no replacements are recorded in black clay; instead, red miniature juglets and later black pyxides occupy the same ritual niche .
Proposed function
Reich restricts interpretation to statements grounded in the finds. He stresses that the juglets are the smallest vessels in Iron Age funerary sets and that their concentration in tombs positions them as objects “with funerary affinities.” He refrains from assigning a specific rite but notes the formal resemblance to the Greek lekythos, a container used for grave offerings .
Decline and cessation
The Tomb 5 repository illustrates gradual withdrawal of MBJs: twenty in its lowest layer, nine in the next, five and two in higher layers, and none in the fill after the fourth layer . In contrast, counts from Lakhish Tomb 1002 remain stable across three divisions, suggesting regional differences in supply or deposition practice . Reich argues that the vessels’ disappearance may reflect the loss of specialised workshops, perhaps disrupted by the Assyrian campaign of 701 BCE, after which residual stock was exhausted .
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