Stone vessels in ancient Judaea

Stone vessels made of soft limestone, were used by Jews throughout Judaea during the second temple period and beyond. They first appeared during the early 1^st century BCE and were gradually phased out during the following centuries. Their use in Judea was originally thought to have ceased after the destruction of the second Temple, though their discovery in such Jewish sites as those in Jericho and Shuafat, it became clear that their use continued until the Bar Kokhba revolt. By contrast, in the Galilee they continued to be used until the 4^th century at least.  Stone vessels were found in all the regions that were densely populated by Jews according to historical sources, and in all settlements which also contained ritual baths. As a result, Stone vessels, along with the presence of Mikvehs and a lack of imported vessels, serve as a clear indicator for Jewish sites in Judaea from the early Roman period through the Byzantine period.

According to Jewish ritual law, as opposed to pottery vessels which had to be broken or discarded when becoming impure, stone vessels were not susceptible to impurity. It is most probably due to this property that their use became increasingly popular during the Second Temple Period, when purity was a central part of Jewish culture and lifestyle.

Religious context

According to early interpretations of biblical law, the susceptibility of vessels to impurity is, among other things, based on the material which composed said vessel. The biblical book of Leviticus lists the substances which become impure when they come in contact with a dead animal

When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean, whether it is made of wood, cloth, hide or sackcloth. Put it in water; it will be unclean till evening, and then it will be clean.

The book of Numbers further lists other materials, including metals, which become impure when they come in contact with human remains:

Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood. Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is what is required by the law that the Lord gave Moses: ²² Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead ²³ and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water.

It is based on these lists that it was deduced during the Second temple period that vessels made of these materials, namely wood, cloth, leather, sackcloth, pottery, bone and metal, are all susceptible to impurity, while vessels made of material not mentioned by the bible in this context, such as stone, could not become impure. Furthermore, early Tannaitic sources discuss stone vessels extensively as insusceptible of impurity. Although some scholars have suggested other reasons for the popularity of stone vessels during this period, such as fashion or the increase of the use of stone in Jerusalem overall, the sources of the period provide support for purity being the main reason for their popularity.  In addition to this, given the durability of stoneware its use became popular and widespread during the 1^st century BCE, when the observation of the laws of purity were of utmost importance to the Jewish population.