This article presents the results of the first in-depth, interdisciplinary study of the Upper Palaeolithic period ceramic technology from Dolni Vestonice and other Pavlovian sites in Moravia, Czechoslovakia, and discusses: 1) a typology for the over 10,000 excavated ceramic fragments; 2) composition and raw materials; 3) construction, modeling, and decorating sequences; and 4) the heat treatments used to produce them. The firing temperatures and microstructures of figurines were compared with those of the kilns and hearths. Through measurements of structure, composition, and properties, the study concludes that the making and firing of ceramic figurines was a culturally patterned behavior integral to their use, that their function involved the intentional practice of thermal shock and was not directed exclusively toward the production of permanent ceramic objects.