Painted potteries are characterized mainly by colorful decorations on their surfaces. The continuous studies on the painted pottery will gain knowledge about the making craft of pottery and the pigments. In this study, the compositions, structures and firing temperatures of painted pottery samples from a Xiang Mountain Han tomb and a Warring States Period tomb in Yiyuan county of Shandong province were analyzed by dispersive XRay fluorescence analysis, Xray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and thermal expansion analysis methods. For the first time, powdered talc was found as the understratum on cinnabar painted pottery. In the Yiyuan County Warring States Period tomb, pottery coated with a tin layer was also found for the first time in the northern China. Although the body materials of figurines and wares from Xiang Mountain Han tomb were similar, their firing temperatures were obviously different because the temperatures for the figurines were higher than those of the wares. These results could provide new information regarding the development of technology for painted potteries.