In ancient India complex technologies for forming and firing pottery were developed to meet the challenges of different types of clays and available fuels, as well as diverse cultural and ritual needs. Simultaneously clays, slips and firing process were customized with innovations through time and space leading to region and period specific specialized wares. While the knowledge of some pottery making traditions was passed on from one generation to the next and is documented to an extent today, other techniques, such as the manufacturing of Northern Black Polished Ware has been lost. Attempts by scholars either to deconstruct this ware scientifically or to reconstruct the then technique experimentally, have been largely unsuccessful. This paper is yet another attempt to deconstruct manufacturing methods of the ware, and primarily the preparation of the slip - this time using petrochemical, XRD, XRF and microscopy.