As has already been stated, there are many lessons to be learned from the study of pottery. These lessons vary in both practice and utility. However, all play their part in piecing together the past. Much can be learned from pottery some of which is directly linked to the pottery itself. Other information can be found which is more inferred than anything else. This therefore makes the study of pottery one of two parts. Firstly, the physical study of pottery, which will be dealt with in the first part of this essay, and secondly the study of the cultural insight pottery gives enabling archaeologists to understand the society from which it came.
Perhaps the most obvious way of analysing pottery is by the naked eye but its obviousness should not detract from its importance. By observing the physical attributes of any artefact a great deal can be told of its manufacture as well as its manufacturer. The practice of typology is of great use when analysing pottery. By observing the shape and size of any artefact it is often possible to date that artefact within a specific range of dates. The size of this range is however not always as accurate as one might wish it to be. Nevertheless, by using typology an educated guess can be made regarding the creation of a piece of pottery this can then be further applied to the site itself where