MONITORING DESK
\nBAGHDAD
\nAdel al-Kawwaz expertly spins the potter\u2019s wheel, shaping the wet clay into a smooth jug. His family is famous for this millennia-old Iraqi craft, but Kawwaz is struggling to keep it alive.
\nFor thousands of years, clay utensils for storing food and cooking were found in virtually every home in Sumer, the earliest known civilisation in modern-day southern Iraq. Kawwaz\u2019s own family drew their name from the jug, or \u201ckawz\u201d in Arabic, which they have produced for more than 200 years from clay found at a lake by Najaf, a holy Shiite Muslim city.
\n\u201cMaking clay vases is a craft that my family had become famous for,\u201d says 45-year-old Kawwaz wistfully.
\nPottery has deep roots in Iraq, where ancient civilisations turned to clay to build their homes, shape their cooking utensils, and even make their ovens.
\nCuneiform, one of the earliest forms of writing invented by the Sumerians, was also carved into clay tablets.
\nBut now, with a flood of more modern products, demand for the handmade clay items has dried up, says Kawwaz.
\n– Once ubiquitous, now forgotten –
\nHis family\u2019s jugs were shaped from Najaf mud, dried in the shade, then baked at high temperatures for no less than 15 hours.
\nIn Iraq, one of the hottest countries on earth, they were indispensable.
\n\u201cThese vases were used to keep water cool or preserve food. They were placed in the shade or hung in another high location,\u201d he says.
\nIraqis even used them to store jewelry.
\n\u201cThose that practiced pottery would make a lot of money because they were common items in ancient Iraqi households,\u201d says Kawwaz.
\nThey were surprisingly handy during the era of Saddam Hussein, when many families struggled financially, as well as in the 1990s, when international sanctions hit Iraq.
\nWith household appliances extremely rare or unaffordable for most of the population, Iraqis once again relied on clay.
\n\u201cThe income of most families did not allow them to buy a refrigerator or freezer to keep their water cold, so most used clay cauldrons,\u201d he says.
\nBack then, his family sold their large jugs in bulk — sometimes thousands per week across every Iraqi province. But times have changed.
\n\u201cWe sell very few now — the numbers in an entire year don\u2019t hit 100 or 200 jugs,\u201d says Kawwaz.
\nFarmers who once used the large containers are opting for cheaper goods, made either elsewhere in Iraq or imported.
\n\u201cThey buy plastic bags imported from China, so now we rarely sell clay pots,\u201d says Kawwaz in his studio, itself made of mud and covered in palm leaves.
\nHe makes the vases by special request only, but admits it\u2019s hardly worth it.
\nSmall jugs cost just 2,500 dinars or around $2, while the larger cauldrons that hold several dozen litres (gallons) are sold at 15,000 dinars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MONITORING DESK BAGHDAD Adel al-Kawwaz expertly spins the potter\u2019s wheel, shaping the wet clay into a smooth jug. His family is famous for this millennia-old Iraqi craft, but Kawwaz is struggling to keep it alive. For thousands of years, clay utensils for storing food and cooking were found in virtually every home in Sumer, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n