Archaeometrical studies of prehistoric pottery using portable ED-XRF

•The XRF analysis has been made for pre-Roman Iron-Age pottery.•The statistical analysis of obtained data has been provided.•The studies confirm a separation of the groups of the materials typical of the two cultures. This article presents the studies of archaeological ceramic materials from two sites located in Poland within the region called Kuyavia: Grabkowo no.7 and no. 8 yielded pottery dated to the younger pre-Roman Iron-Age and they represent two cultures and different traditions in the pottery production. This case allows to follow and analyse the differences and similarities between these materials chemical composition with the use of portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. The knowledge of elemental composition of pottery samples have been applied in the archaeometric studies of ceramic differentiation. The methodology points to the possibility of identifying different pottery traditions in the production of mass archaeological material.