Pottery sherds from two sites of the Neolithic Altheim culture of the 4th millennium BC (uncalibrated dates) in south Germany were sampled, as were several local clay sources. Their trace elements were analyzed by neutron activation analysis and principal component analysis. The aim of this pilot study was to establish whether clays used to produce these Altheim ceramics provided sufficient characteristic fingerprinting to establish the probable existence of local workshops (no such study has been carried out in this region) and whether proveniencing might be successful. The results were encouraging; fingerprinting established meaningful groups and some of the local clay seems to have been used by occupants of both the sites investigated so far. Another homogeneous stable group has not yet been provenienced. Further work to check more of the local clay sources and to enlarge the Altheim sherd sampling should eventually provide scientific evidence of inter - and intraregional contacts.