We can suggest regions of origin, on geological grounds, for all five fabric groups and, for four of them, we know the commodities the jars carried. Patterns of trade are beginning to emerge. Hitherto it had been assumed that southern Palestine was the source of Canaanite Jars in Egypt in the Late Bronze Age as it was during the Middle Bronze Age, but all our fabric groups, except 2, originate in the north of the region.
We have established a fabric classification in which petrographic analysis is integrated into a visual classification, so that all sherds, whether thin-sectioned or not, can be classified and the material for statistical analysis in further research can be extended.
Analysis by ICP-AES of our fabric standards is planned, to confirm our findings, since a single type of analysis carries insufficient weight to support the complex trade and historical implications of our results. A monograph will be written in 2000, incorporating all the archaeological data, including a shape typology for each group, the full publication of the petrographic and chemical analyses and the results of the residue analyses.
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