This paper describes a new X-ray fluorescence determination technique that uses glass bead specimens and synthetic calibration standards to reliably analyze the compositions of silicic pottery samples in order to estimate the provenance of the pottery.

A total of 41 pottery shards originating in the Jomon period (14000–300 BC) and Yayoi period (300 BC–250 AD) were excavated from the Shimotakabora site on Oshima Island of the Izu islands (Tokyo, Japan). X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry was used to determine the chemical composition (10 major oxides and 12 minor elements) of the potteries to identify the potteries' provenance, that is, local or nonlocal product. The calibration curves were drawn by synthetic standards prepared from a mixture of chemical reagents containing analytes, which presented good accuracy and reproducibility by analysis of the geochemical references. The pottery samples were classified by multivariate statistics such as principal component analysis and cluster analysis based on their chemical composition. Additionally, the X‐ray fluorescence results were compared with geochemical data from Oshima Island using scatter diagrams. The pottery provenance was identified by their classification. This provenance estimation indicates that 37 of the 41 potteries were brought to Oshima island from Japan's main island, Honshu, in the prehistoric age.

A total of 47 pottery fragments were unearthed in Hachijojima Island, part of the Izu Islands (Tokyo, Japan). Among these samples, 36 found in the Kurawa site had designs resembling pottery dating back to the Jomon period (14,000–300 BC) distributed throughout Japan's main island, Honshu; five samples from the Jomon period found in the Yubama site were “undesigned”; the rest, found in the Yaene site, were undesigned Haji pottery samples dating back to the beginning of the late Kofun period (490–549 AD). X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) was used to determine the chemical composition (in terms of 10 major oxides and 12 minor elements) of the samples to identify their provenance, that is, local versus nonlocal. For this purpose, a portion of each pottery fragment was processed to obtain a glass bead specimen. The pottery samples were classified by multivariate statistical approaches, including principal component analysis and cluster analysis, on the basis of their chemical composition. Additionally, the XRF results were compared to geochemical data from Hachijojima Island using scatter diagrams. The data thus collected allowed the provenance of the pottery samples to be inferred. In particular, the 36 samples from the Kurawa site were concluded to have been brought to Hachijojima Island from Honshu in prehistoric times, whereas the other samples were concluded to have been manufactured locally.

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