W.F. Albright first identified Khirbet Kerak Ware in the early 1920s.
The ware consists of a variety of bowls, kraters, jars and stands beautifully burnished
in red and black, as well as of unburnished cooking ware and portable hearths, all made
in a style and technique clearly alien to the local traditions. This ware has been linked to
groups of Early Transcaucasian migrants who emerged in the Kura-Araxes
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region, and spread to southeastern Anatolia and the Levant during the 3rd millennium BC,
producing distinctive ceramics known in Turkey and Syria as Karaz Ware or Red-Black
Burnished Ware.
At Tel Bet Yerah, Khirbet Kerak Ware was introduced at the beginning
of EB III, ca. 2750 BCE, and produced in large quantities on-site, alongside traditional
local ceramics. Production of this ware continued throughout EB III, in diminishing
quantities, and ended with the demise of the Early Bronze Age town.
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