Types of Archaeological Science
Archaeological science can be divided into the following areas:
- physical and chemical dating methods which provide archaeologists with absolute and relative chronologies
- artifact studies
- environmental approaches which provide information on past landscapes, climates, flora, and fauna; as well as the diet, nutrition, health, and pathology of people
- mathematical methods for data treatment (also encompassing the role of computers in handling, analyzing, and modeling the vast sources of data)
- remote-sensing and geophysical-survey applications comprising a battery of non-destructive techniques for the location and characterization of buried features at the regional, micro-regional, and intra-site levels
- conservation sciences, involving the study of decay processes and the development of new methods of conservation
Techniques such as lithic analysis, archaeometallurgy, paleoethnobotany, palynology and zooarchaeology also form sub-disciplines of archaeological science.
Read more about this topic: Archaeological Science
Famous quotes containing the words types and/or science:
“Science is intimately integrated with the whole social structure and cultural tradition. They mutually support one otheronly in certain types of society can science flourish, and conversely without a continuous and healthy development and application of science such a society cannot function properly.”
—Talcott Parsons (19021979)
“Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated; when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending toward the condition of science and aspiring to do it. The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science.”
—Paul Valéry (18711945)