Recent archaeological studies of Mycenaean ceramic industries all indicate that pots were manufactured and distributed at multiple regional scales and consumed in similar contexts in various, different Mycenaean states. Still unclear are the factors that determined shifting scales of production and exchange and contexts of use. I argue that different pottery types served different roles in Mycenaean political economies, for similar reasons. Recent, disparate theoretical models, meant to explain the organization of the Pylian ceramic industry (e.g. those of Whitelaw, Knappett, Wright, Bendall, and Galaty), when combined and compared to the results of ceramic research conducted elsewhere on the Mainland as well as on Kythera and Crete, shed much light on the reasons for these similarities. Equally revealing are new settlement data that help to further explain organizational similarities in the ceramic industries of independent Mycenaean states.