The reconstruction of the technical systems of ceramic production and of its ‘chaîne opératoire’ is a means of exploring certain social structures in time and space. For many years, methodological procedures based on multidisciplinarity have made it possible to analyse both materials and methods of fabrication for this purpose. Session IV-3 organised at the 18th Congress of the UISPP in 2018 aimed to highlight the contribution of technological approaches to ceramics, both in archaeology and in ethnology, to the analysis of pre- and protohistoric societies. The case studies focus on the Neolithic and the European Bronze Age, but also on the megalithism of our era in Senegal.