In a new study, published in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, researchers compared the dimension of hundreds of storage jars from ancient Israel and Judah and discovered that the diameter of the inner rim remained constant. This dimension was equivalent to the width of a man’s hand, and the authors have suggested it represents a handbreadth (tefah), the biblical unit of measure mentioned in Exodus 25:25 and 37:12. Researchers performed 3D scans of over 300 Iron Age, including jars from Khirbet Qeiyafa (10th century BC), “hippo” jars from northern Israel (9th century BC), and Judahite storage jars (8th-7th centuries BC). While the size and styles of the jars changed throughout the centuries, the diameter of the inner rim remained between 8.85 and 8.97 centimeters. In their article, the authorize suggest the dimensions of the inner rim remained the same because it was natural for ancient potters to use their palms as the standard width for the openings.
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