The available clay and feldspar reference samples, rather than the frequently used rock reference samples, are suggested as standards for archaeological pottery studies because their trace-element contents are more like those of the artefacts. Such samples may provide a basis for correlating archaeological studies throughout the world. The assumption that bottles of such reference samples should have homogeneous trace-element contents because of the nature of the materials has been confirmed by the analysis of variance of trace-element data by instrumental neutron activation analysis.