Background: An ancient pottery from the La Candelaria archaeological site, Santa Helena del Opón, Santander (Colombia) has been investigated by several analytical techniques.Evidences of high temperature mineral phases and high degrees of vitrification indicate that the raw clayed paste for manufacture of the ceramic artifacts passed through high firing temperatures with a non-homogeneous firing.Almost all raw materials for manufacture of pottery sherds mainly proceed from the region, which was developed by a culture which through the centuries did not realized substantial changes in their manufacture technology.