Pottery excavated in Iran had crystalline deposits on the surface due to deterioration. The deposits contained calcium, potassium, and chlorine, and traces of titanium and sulfur. The pottery was extracted 10 times by immersing it in distilled water; salts leached each time wereweighed and analyzed by x-ray microanalysis and ion chromatography. The weight of extracted salts in the first leaching corresponded to 60% of the total and thereafter the salt amount leached decreased gradually. Ion chromatography showed that over 50% of the sodium cation (NA₊), potassium cation (K₊), chlorine anion (C1S+S), and sulfate anion (SO₄_2-) were leached in the first leaching, and thereafter the amount of ions leached gradually decreased. At and after the sixth leaching the amounts were constant. The crystalline deposits consist of potassium chloride, sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, potassium sulfate, and calcium chloride-the first two being the major components. -- AATA