A number of 8th-century BC <i>pithoi</i> (storage jars) inscribed with a Hebrew script and decorated with figurine-like drawings were found in Kuntillet 'Ajrud in the northwest Sinai peninsula. Texts mentioning Teiman and the use of Samarian inscriptions triggered the quest for determining the provenance of this pottery. Instrumental neutron activation analysis showed that no pottery was local to Kuntillet 'Ajrud, that the large <i>pithoi</i> all came from Jerusalem, while other ceramic finds were imported from the north of Israel and from the southern littoral of the Levant which was not expected previously. These results gave rise to subsequent studies of interrelations among different populations in the southern Levant, all of whom travelled through the Negev Desert.