Clues to the manufacturing technique of Early Bronze Age Cypriote black-topped pottery were attained by test firings in experimental kilns made for this purpose. The feasibility of a single quick heating and cooking firing cycle, the cooling taking place in a reducing atmosphere, was investigated. The resulting pottery was analysed by Mössbauer spectroscopy and found to compare well with ancient ware with respect to Mössbauer data and to aspects of appearance such as distribution of colour, hue, hardness, and gloss. Both the reduction rate just measured and the appearance point to a firing peak of c. 600° C; this fits well with prior estimations based on hardness tests. The sand in which upright vases were placed was found to protect well against reducing gases. Firing variations which could be accidental were found to produce pottery with the same kind of miscolourings as may occur on the ancient vases. Two Red Polished bowls and two Black Polished bottles from the Collection of Classical Antiquities in the Gustavianum, Uppsala, may all have been manufactured by this method, in spite of what their classification implies. This method, accordingly, is found feasible not only for Cypriote Red Polished black-topped pottery but also for Black Polished pottery with mottling.