Ancient Israelite cuisine aside, and the loaves were baked on the heated surface. People also began placing a convex dome, initially earthenware and later metal, over the pit-oven and cooking the flatbreads on the dome instead of on the ash-covered surface; this type of oven is probably what was meant by the biblical "machabat", often translated as “griddle”. The Persians introduced a clay oven called a tanur (similar to the Indian tandoor), which had an opening at the bottom for the fire, and through which the bread was placed to be baked on the inner wall of the upper chamber from the heat
Tabun oven side down, on top. A layer of clean smooth lime stone pebbles about 1" in diameter is spread on top of foundation inside the shell to form a clean baking surface. Tabun oven A tabun oven, or simply tabun (also transliterated taboon, from the ), is a clay oven, shaped like a truncated cone, with an opening at the bottom from which to stoke the fire. Built and used in biblical times as the family, neighbourhood, or village oven, tabun ovens continue to be built and used in parts of the Middle East today. Nowadays, some of the tabun ovens