This fundamental study offers a reconstruction of the social world in which pottery was manufactured, distributed and used in ancient Palestine. Part I concludes that ceramic wares in the Bronze and Iron Ages were mass-produced for commercial sale by small workshops, probably family owned and operated. The technological level was high, with potters' wheels and permanent kilns being used. Part II argues that ceramic styles were rapidly spread throughout Palestine, primarily by itinerant merchants who sold ordinary household wares over great distances.