Courtesy Margreet Steiner

Jarring evidence. Kathleen Kenyon discovered this storage jar—distinguished by a collarlike ridge at the top of its short wide neck—beneath the Stepped-Stone Structure. According to some scholars, the Israelites introduced these collared-rim jars for water storage in about 1200 B.C.E., and the jars remained in use until about 1000 B.C.E., when cisterns became prevalent. Steiner dates this particular example, and the pottery found with it, to the 12th century B.C.E., and infers that the building in which it was found has the same date. However, Jane Cahill and a number of other scholars believe that these jars were used from at least the 13th century through the ninth century B.C.E.; thus, Cahill argues, this jar cannot be used to date securely the structure in which it was discovered.