Porter, Alexandra Claire Lachlan; (2007) The production, distribution, and use of ceramic jar, Type 4100, in South Arabia and the northern Horn of Africa. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Type 4100 jars have been recovered across South Arabia and in the northern Horn of Africa. When the Type 4100 jars are found in datable contexts they usually date within the first millennium BC, but their most common occurrence is in the first half of the first millennium BC, when the Sabaeans controlled a large part of South Arabia and the Sabaean-related kingdom of Da'mat arose in the northern Horn of Africa. The Type 4100 jars are often discovered at sites with early Sabaic inscriptions, as well as temples dedicated to Almaqah, the Sabaean national deity. Type 4100 jars appeared throughout the southern Red Sea region from the late eighth/early seventh century BC, when Sabaean mukarribs, such as Karib'Il Watar, son of Dhamar'ali, conducted military and diplomatic campaigns to build the Sabaean federation. Thus far, the Type 4100 jar is the only pottery form that can be convincingly linked to the Sabaean expansion throughout South Arabia and into the northern Horn of Africa. However, contrary to previous suggestions, thin section analysis demonstrates that there was a very wide distribution of Type 4100 producers, and that there is very little evidence for wide-scale overseas or overland trade of the Type 4100 jar or its contents. The Type 4100 jars have a remarkably consistent form and fabric texture over a very broad geographical region and are clearly the products of a strong and widely distributed ceramic tradition that was probably transmitted throughout the Empire by Sabaean potters. The distribution of the Type 4100 jars over such a vast region and its association with elite architecture and tombs clearly indicates that the jar had a special role in Sabaean rituals or activities. A liquid commodity or beverage, possibly honey or a honey-based drink, may have been contained in the Type 4100 jars. The Type 4100 jar is a significant chronological and cultural marker, clearly associated with the period of the Sabaean Empire.

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