Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Two similar excavated jars can be dated to AD 1070 and 1078, respectively, the former inscribed with the date in ink, the latter discovered in a dated tomb.

The tall jar has an ovoid body with three bulging steps below the straight neck, and resting on a heavy, somewhat splayed foot. Five tubular sockets are attached at the shoulder. The domed cover fits inside the jar and has an everted, upward curved rim, and an elaborate openwork bud-shaped knob on an everted plinth with notched rim. The jar is decorated on the upper part with a diaper pattern formed of incised cross-hatched lines, and on the lower part with three rows of incised and combed overlapping petals. The neck and foot are plain, and the cover is decorated with similar petals and with spiralling lines on the knob. The olive-green glaze pools to a dark green layer on the rim of the cover and adheres in thick drops at the foot, but leaves the rims of both parts and a ring-shaped area on the base free, where the biscuit has burnt a reddish-brown. The cover was fired in place and forcibly removed, and has part of the lip of the jar attached; similarly, a large part of a thick ring-shaped firing support is stuck to the glazed base.