A large number of fragments of ancient roman pottery has been analyzed for main constituents, minor and trace-elements using high-energetic photon activation analysis followed by high resolution gamma spectroscopy. Especially the environmental influence on the concentrations of the minor constituents and trace elements during deposition of the sherds in the soil has been examined. Finally, a comparison has been made between analysis data of ancient pottery obtained by photon activation analysis, X-ray fluorescence analysis and 14 MeV-neutron activation analysis.