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Archaeological science, also known as archaeometry, consists of the application of scientific techniques and methodologies to archaeology.
Archaeological science ca be divided into the following areas:[1]
Techniques such as lithic analysis, archaeometallurgy, paleoethnobotany, palynology and zooarchaeology also form sub-disciplines of archaeological science.
Archaeologists can obtain significant additional data and information using these techniques, and archeometry has the potential to alter the understanding of the past. The so-called "Second radiocarbon revolution" provides a good example of such alteration: it significantly re-dated European prehistory in the 1960s (the first radiocarbon revolution involved the original introduction of the method to archaeology from 1949).
Archaeological science has particular value when it can provide absolute dates for archaeological strata and artifacts. Some of most important dating techniques include:
However, archaeologists have applied archaeological science in many other ways as well. They have used a variety of methods to analyze artifacts, either to determine more about their composition, or to determine their provenance. These techniques include:
Lead, strontium and oxygen isotope analysis can also test human remains to estimate the diets and even the birthplaces of a study's subjects.
Provenance analysis has the potential to determine the original source of the materials used, for example, to make a particular artifact. This can show how far the artifact has traveled and can indicate the existence of systems of exchange.
The use of remote sensing has enabled archaeologists to identify many more archaeological sites than they could have otherwise. The use of aerial photography remains the most wide-spread remote-sensing technique, but archaeologists have supplemented it with the use of satellite imagery, especially with the declassification of images from military satellites. Ground-based geophysical surveys often help to identify and map archaeological features within identified sites.
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Last updated on Monday September 24, 2007 at 05:23:47 PDT (GMT -0700)
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