Water Container

Nupe potters use a convex-mold technique to form the base of round-bottomed vessels. In this method they hammer a flat disk of clay over the top of the mold, usually a fired pot, until achieving the desired shape. They then finish the piece with coils if so desired.
On this pot, the rounding of the lower half slows to a gradual inward slope at midpoint and terminates in a rimless opening. The incised embellishment is relatively thick and deep and was applied with a comb. On the upper half of the vessel, two wide bands of pattern are separated by raised lines. The lower of these bands is filled in with zigzag lines, while the upper one has a series of arches that are further punctuated by raised dots of clay. A similarly embellished vessel is said to have come from the region of Muregi.