Abstract
The paper analyzes the remains of an architectural structure identified by the author as a pottery workshop. On the basis of analogy, the author made an attempt to describe the full cycle of production of ancient ceramics based on materials from the settlement of the Bronze Age of Shagalaly II. The article highlights some issues of the architectural features of the pottery workshop and their functional purpose. In the course of the study, archaeological material showed the coexistence in the settlement of two traditions of the production of ceramics «home» and «workshop». The work touched upon the appearance of pottery wheel in the steppe, and proposed criteria for determining pottery workshops on monuments of the Bronze Age.