The fact that the inside of this bowl-shaped object is decorated with concave, or intaglio, motifs indicates that it was actually a mould. It was used to make bowls and a certain type of jug in which only the top part was decorated this way. The bottom part of these jugs was made in another, undecorated mould, while the neck, foot and handles were simply added once the parts of the main body were assembled. The clay that was used to make a vessel in a mould had to be very fine-textured and of good quality to ensure that it filled all the depressions in the design completely. The use of this technique implies that such vessels were produced on an almost industrial scale. The city of Raqqa was a center of this type of production in the Islamic era.