In this study a method has been developed to classify archaeologically related soil samples by means of multivariate statistical analysis(principal component analysis)of determined trace and main component concentrations.The Inductively Coupled Plasma-mass Spectrometry(ICP-MS)technique was used for the determination of many elements,and good accuracy was achieved by calibration against a certified reference material.Soil samples from a late Bronze Age site,Yinxu.The Yinxu site is located in Anyang City,Henan Province,China.This site is large settlement site of the Shang dynasty,and it is dated to 1250~ 1050B.C.The site is currently known with the earliest Oracle,the largest palace building,the group of ritual bronzes,and bronze smelting workshops,and is so far to have confirmed as the site for the largest capital of kingdom.The archaeological context of Yinxu Soil samples and their significance for the archaeometallurgy research of the Late Bronze Age are discussed as well.It was also demonstrated that in this case,a simpler pretreatment procedure-acid extraction-could be used instead of total dissolution of the samples.Microwave heating was utilized for both procedures.