Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) believe they have cracked the century-old mystery of cone-shaped clay vessels, known as cornets, found across hundreds of sites in Israel and Jordan, according to an October 2025 study.
The research team, led by Sharon Zuhovitzky, Paula Waiman-Barak and Yuval Gadot, focused on a collection of 35 complete vessels and approximately 550 fragments held by the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem.
The fragments had been excavated from the Teleilat el-Ghassul archaeological site near the Dead Sea in Jordan between 1931 and 1938.
The cornets, which have pointed bases and cannot stand upright, are a fossile directeur of the Chalcolithic period (roughly 4,700–3,800 BCE), meaning they are so characteristic of the era that archaeologists use them as a diagnostic marker for the period.
Using 3D scanning, microscopic analysis, and hands-on archaeological experiments to trace the cornets' entire “life cycle,” TAU researchers believe the cornets were used as candles and held aloft during ceremonial processions, before being ritually smashed and deposited into sacred pits.
Chemical analysis of the clay used to make the cornets confirmed that they all were made from materials sourced from a few different places near the Teleilat el-Ghassul site, suggesting they were made not by professional potters but by individuals.
This revealed "a previously undocumented pattern, that of vessels produced specifically for a ceremony by the participants themselves, possibly as they prepare themselves for the climax of the visit,” according to the study.
Testing the hypothesis
The most telling clue to the cornets’ function came from their interiors, the study explained, which were deliberately left rough and unfinished inside, suggested that the interior was always covered by a solid substance.
Additional chemical analysis of the inside of the cornets’ showed beeswax residue, further confirming the researchers' hypothesis.
To test it, beeswax candles were cast into replicas of the cornets using flax thread as a wick. The results showed that the candles lit easily, burned stably in wind, and produced no soot on the cornet’s interior because the solidified wax kept the wick centered and away from the sides.
As well, the four, small pierced legs on some of the cornets, which had previously been dismissed as mere decoration, turned out to be perfectly designed for a handle, as they providing balanced, drip-free suspension.
“A cultic context for cornets is largely accepted by researchers following their high frequency at sites identified as serving for public ceremonies,” the study noted, as “significant accumulations of cornets in specific locations considered sacred within these sites support this notion.”