The purpose of this study was to test the practicability or identifying the place of origin of potsherds from the radioactivity produced within them by neutron bombardment. Sherds from five locations in the Mediterranean region were used in the experiments. Small samples were taken from the sherds by abrasion with a tungsten carbide pencil and irradiated for periods of from twenty to thirty seconds in the center of the Brookhaven nuclear reactor. After irradiation, the whole range of gamma radiation was measured with a counter, and the data expressed in the form of decay curves. Sherds from the same region tended to give parallel decay curves and those from different regions nonparallel curves. This was taken as evidence for corresponding similarities and differences in chemical composition. Quantitative estimates of the manganese and sodium content of the sherds showed characteristic differences for different regions. Though these first results are encouraging, large amounts of data will berequired to test the general validity of the method. An attractive feature of this new method is that it makes possible the nondestructive estimation of the chemical composition of pottery objects, for an entire object may be irradiated for the measurement of its induced radiation.