Twenty trace elements were determined in 250 Korean potsherds and 5 clay samples by instrumental NAA. In the absence of identified samples of known origin, the potsherds were classified by a hierarchical centroid sorting method to construct a dendrogram. From this dendrogram 61 well-defined samples were selected to form 8 subclasses and five elements such as Cr, Cs, Sm, Sc and Th were supposed to be the main contributors for the classification. The 61 samples along with 5 clay samples were reclassified by means of minimal spanning tree as well as the hierarchical centroid sorting method by using 5 elements selected. As the results, the potsherds of certain classes defined in this work could be taken as a basis for latter identification and served as batches of identified species.