Russian Ethnographic Museum. Annotation to the exposition: Pottery was widespread among the Mordovians, unlike other inhabitants of the Volga region. The technical devices and techniques for making pottery were primitive; in addition to the molded method, the sculptural method was also used - modeling on a board, without a potter's wheel. Such dishes were made by women-housewives at home for use in everyday life, mainly for storing milk and homemade beer. 
<p>The ornament on the walls of the vessel was made with a finger or a nail. Only occasionally was the stamp used.
A generic meth was often placed on the bottom of the vessel. In terms of forms and ornaments, such dishes are close to ceramics from the ancient burial grounds of the Mordovians. Such an archaic method of manufacturing was preserved only among the Kochkurov Mordovians in the villages of Kochkurovo, Semiley, N. Pyrma, Saransk district.
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Analogies are found among the Komi-Zyryans, where women also made handmade utensils. The Saratov Mordovians, apparently under the influence of Russian potters, developed a pottery business in the 19th century, where artisans produced pottery for sale on a potter's wheel.
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