In this article (which is a part of research on the archeological investigation of Fai abounded settlement in Jaba local government area of Kaduna state between 2008 and 2010), an attempt is made to look into history of pottery making amongst the Fai people that once occupied the site, An attempt is also made to offer interpretations to the various types of pottery materials found in the area using oral tradition and ethnographic methods.
These materials which were found in the course of the archeological reconnaissance and survey carried out by the research revealed that pottery making actively took place in the area in the past. However oral tradition confirms that the art of pot making in the area has since improved due to European influence and the arduous and tasking nature of the art in the area, hence the need for a proper reconstruction and documentation of the history of the pottery making in the area for posterity.
Pottery making has been byproducts of technological development usually borne out of different needs. Pottery can be described as objects made by moulding or shaping moist clay and hardening it by the heating of fire for durability.
Emotion: – They either love it or hate it. For some it has an indefinable fascination, and is potentially full of information, which has to be teased out of it by careful and painstaking study. At either end of the scale, Orton (1993) sees pottery as the most common of archeological material whose main functions are to slow down the real business of lugging, full up stores, and behave as an Archeological black hole for post excavation resource.
Pottery making in Nigeria has a remote antiquity and it is believed to be indigenous. According to Okpoko (2008), the craft is no doubt one tradition craft that is embraced by all part of the country starting from the prehistory period when man became sedentary. In Fai dominant belief making in the area must have a reason as a result of the availability of the raw materials for the manufacture. This raw materials known as ‘ndowbo’ (clay) has between the speeding wheels of the craft in the area.
Research method: The methods employed for this research include oral tradition, ethnographic survey and archeological reconnaissance. Methodologies were very useful because they contribute a lot in providing a well documented account of the materials evident in the pot making in Fai.
