Jerusalem: Eastern Terra Sigillata Juglet

This jug, which was found in the Jewish Quarter excavations in Jerusalem, is made of a type of pottery called Eastern Terra Sigillata 'A', or ESA. Its red, lustrous slip is one of the hallmarks of this kind of pottery and is partially the result of the amount of oxygen in the kiln when the jug was fired. ESA was first produced around 140 BCE in the eastern Mediterranean, probably on the island of Crete and/or along the coast of the northern Levant, but it became very popular and by the 1st century CE was exported all over the Mediterranean. It is one of the types of pottery that can be closely dated and helps archaeologists to better date the soil in which it is found.