A rapid cost-effective instrumental neutron activation analysis method has been developed to characterize Egyptian ceramics. Using this approach, it is possible for one person to take representative samplings from 25 sherds, analyze them and tabulate the data within an eight-hour working day. This in turn means that successive analytical samplings of available materials may be made on the basis of the suite of sherds already analyzed. The efficacy of such an analytical procedure has been tested using a large number of sherds from the collection of the Egyptian Department of the Royal Ontario Museum. The results indicate that elements producing short-lived isotopes may be used to differentiate sherds made from Nile alluvium from sherds formed from chemically different clay sources and from mixtures of Nile alluvium and clays or other materials.