Abstract: Method for the manufacture of bonded and self-bonded bodies from certain particulate ceramic oxides or carbides by heating a shaped mixture containing the particulate ceramic material and from 1 to 10 percent of its weight of an additive which includes an organic moiety and an inorganic moiety and is non-polymeric in respect of the inorganic moiety, and undergoes decomposition on being heated under atmospheric pressure, said additive being exemplified by such organic compounds as aluminum-dibutyl phosphate; tris-(trimethylsiloxy)-aluminum; and diethyl-(triethoxy-silyl)-vanadate, to produce, by the thermal decomposition, an inorganic residue which remains substantially non-volatile up to temperatures at which the particles of the particulate ceramic material become self-bonding; the mixture containing the particulate ceramic material and additive being fired to a temperature of about 200.degree. to about 600.degree.