Handmade Pottery from Medieval Jordan
Why would anyone choose to form a ceramic vessel by hand when it is easier and quicker to make it on a potter’s wheel? This talk looks at two handmade pottery vessels from medieval Jordan and considers what the technological and visual characteristics might tell us about rural life at the time they were made.
Figure 1. Handmade slip-painted storage jar. Archaeological Museum, Citadel of Amman, Jordan. Thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Photograph: Marcus Milwright.
Figure 2. Handmade slip-painted jug. Archaeological Museum, Karak castle, Jordan. Thirteenth or Fourteenth centuries. Photograph: Marcus Milwright.
Figure 3. Drawings showing the type of slip decoration on handmade pottery excavated in Karak castle. Drawing: Marcus Milwright.
Figure 4. Handmade slip-painted bowl, twentieth century. Private collection, Amman, Jordan.
Further reading: ‘Pottery of the Islamic period on the Karak plateau.’ Virtual Karak Resources Project