Azerbaijan

Pottery was one of the ancient branches of the craftsmanship in Karabakh and has preserved its significance up to today. Specialists refer to the emergence of the craft in the Neolithic Age. Beginning from the end of early medieval century, the making of pottery further developed and reached new high levels.
The archaeological excavations in Karabakh indicate that in IX-XIII centuries pottery shaped as a highly-developed branch of the craft. Earthenware objects made during that period reached a very high level both for production techniques and rich decoration elements as compared with previous and later times.
In late medieval period, the production of crockery specialized on three major groups: unglazed tableware, glazed crockery and construction materials. The unglazed crockery includes a variety of earthenware pitchers, pots, jars, jugs, aftafas (jugs with a long spout used for ablutions), milk pitchers, lamps, tobacco pipes and so on. Lineal and dotted patterns were widely used in artistic arrangement of those earthenware objects.
In the late medieval period, glazed crockery was also widely used across Karabakh. Among those types of earthenware were jugs, vases, flower vases, lamps, bowls, etc. Karabakhi potters could tastefully decorate glazed earthenware with enamels obtained from manganese, copper and cobalt. In general, glazed earthenware was baked in two phases: first, crockery was baked as usual in a furnace and put back again to the furnace after being glazed.

In the XVI-XVII centuries over high development of the construction ceramics in Azerbaijan, glazed materials and ceramics mosaic were widely used in different towns of Azerbaijan, including in Karabakh in the construction of palaces, karvansarays, and bathhouses.
Over the period of the existence of the Karabakh khanate in the second half of the XVIII – early XIX centuries, household ceramic production was more developed as a leading branch of the pottery. Based on information from available written records, we can conclude that first of all, the making of jars and pitchers took significant place among the glazed vessels used in everyday live under the khanate.
Karabakhi potters made a variety of wares used widely in everyday life. Ethnographic researches show that pottery was divided into several groups for their intended purposes. Among them took significant place kitchen utensils, vessels for water and milk and crocks to heat and lit houses. A variety of vessels used in everyday live: (jars, cruse, pitchers, mugs, crocks) for water, (earthenware pots, carafes, jugs, cans, mugs, tankards) for saving water and (aftafa - jug with a long spout used for ablutions, spouts) was manufactured in Karabakh.