Amazing Pottery - Before kilns were invented, how did they make pottery in ancient times?

Before kilns were invented, how did they make pottery in ancient times?

I'm writing a paper on a terracota vase made in ancient Greece. Does anyone know how they made pottery then? Did they just hold it over fire to heat it ?

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pretty much, they would put it in a room, light a fire and after the fire went out and had time to cool, they would go and get it. essentially it was baked the same way
The pots were buried in the ashes of a fire. Some potters still use this method today for authenticity.
Before the fired clay pot, most people used BASKETS to eat out of or to cook in. The cooking was done by filling the closely woven basket with water, adding meat or vegetables and then adding HOT ROCKS to the fluid... it would heat the soup. This was done for thousands of years before the invention of pottery
They had already kilns in ancient Greece. They were just wood fired kilns. Check out links for more details. Additional detail can be found using google.
By the time the Greeks were firing terracota vases, the kiln had been in use for a very long time. The kilns back then were fueled by wood. There are a variety of designs used by ancients but they worked in essentialy the same manner as modern kilns. Before the Greeks, others were using kilns and other somewhat cruder pits and caves filled with burning wood and coals. From AncientGreece.com: A well-preserved ceramic kiln dated to a period before the 8th c. BCE. (some estimates date it as far back as the period between 2200 and 1600 BCE since it was found in the early Helladic layers near the Eretria Agora). The bottom chamber was filled with the fuel and burned at high temperatures. The clay vessels were placed above on the shelf that was made of clay and had holes throughout. The door of the fire chamber was formed by three large limestone slabs connected with ceramic clay. The chamber above has not been preserved. It is estimated that such kiln could reach and sustain temperatures of 950 degrees Celsius (1742 degrees Fahrenheit).