Ras Al Khaimah: Pottery is still regarded as one of the oldest handicrafts in the UAE. Even now, main roads connecting one emirate with the next, pottery is on display.
Historians and researchers believe that pottery in its current form is one of the oldest inventions of man.
In the UAE, the making of pottery is a link between old crafts and the present, as it opens a window towards the past, showing us the historical civilizations on this land.
Dr. Sabah Jassim, Director of Antiquities and head of the local excavation mission in Sharjah said that the history of pottery in the emirate goes back according to the available evidence to the Umm Al Nar era which dates back to the 3rd millennium BC.
He added that graves discovered in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, and later in Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah were found to include pottery.
Jassim reiterated that Emiratis made pottery 2,500 years ago, as the Umm Al Nar era started on 2500 BC and ended 2000 BC. The graveyards of that era included vast amounts of pottery.
He also said that there is no realistic evidence to the emergence of pottery before that period of time, whereas pottery found in other antiquity sites was imported and goes back to 5th millennium BC.
About the existence of pottery in the sea, the director of antiquities said that this is due to the sinking of ship, or wars and destruction or even floods.
He also pointed out that a Norwegian mission visited Sharjah for two years and discovered ship wrecks on the western coast in Khor Fakkan and the Fisht coasts, but the pottery was not brought up to the surface.
On the Al Hayer Mountain in the Hqeel valley in Ras Al Khaimah, there are the remains of pottery houses and quarries where a person feels closer to the past than to the present.
The location is known to many Emiratis who worked in this field.
