Cooking Pot

"This short-necked pot has a strongly upturned rim with a protrusion to accommodate a lid. The body is globular and ends in a flat disc-shaped base. The exterior of the vessel is covered with a brown slip (a thin layer of liquid clay applied before firing to improve the finish and increase impermeability). There is red painted decoration of drips, drops and geometric patterns made with a brush, although difficult to see because of the slip.

The clay used to make the vessel is characteristically grainy, and this clay, together with the shape, the manufacturing techniques and the decoration, allow its place of production to be identified as the Julfar workshop (Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates). Julfar pots and other types of vessels were widely exported throughout the Gulf.

This complete set of ceramics was discovered during the excavation of Al Huwaila Fort, a coastal trading and pearl-fishing settlement, attested in Ottoman sources from the 16th century onwards, which is thought to have been Qatar's main city until its abandonment in 1835. The exceptionally deep bay of this fishing port allowed the anchoring of commercial ships and facilitated trade with neighbouring countries and those further afield in the Far East.
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