Seventy-seven pottery and proto-porcelain sherds collected from Meihuadun

Yingang and Henglingshan sites of Boluo County

Guangdong Province were studied with INAA . These sherds are of Western Zhou to Warring States Period. Concentrations of 27 elements were measured

then principal component analysis and other statistical procedures were applied to the data set in order to classify these sherds. This study shows: (1) Though these 3 ar-chaeological sites are located close to each other within an area of about 1000 km2

ancient potters of these sites might use raw materials of different origins for pottery production

as pottery sherds of these 3 sites show different chemical compositions. Such differentiation is also observed for the proto-porcelain samples

indicating that proto-porcelain samples found at Meihuadun and Henglingshan might be of different provenance; (2) In each site during the Western Zhou to Spring- Autumn Period the same raw material was used for both hard pottery and soft pottery manufacturing

while during the Warring States Period no similarity in chemical compositions was observed between hard pottery and soft pottery samples. It is wondered if this phenomenon means an advancement of ceramic technology.