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The connection between archaeology and the natural sciences is obvious. The archaeological sources mostly consist of material remains and when studying matter and its change, you need methods from physics and chemistry. The Archaeological Research Laboratory at Stockholm University was established in 1976. In 1986 the University created a professorship, first as an adjoint position but later as a regular chair, in laboratory archaeology. This label of the discipline is slightly different from the international one, i.e. archaeological science, and puts emphasis on archaeology rather than on the scientific techniques as such. This is not a coincidence. The application by archaeologists of analytical techniques in order to solve archaeological problems has been the trademark of the Archaeological Research Laboratory already from the start.
At the Archaeological Research Laboratory scientific techniques are applied in close integration with traditional archaeological methods and modern archaeological theory, with the aim of solving problems essential to archaeology. This often leads to the application of several analytical techniques in each research program as their focus is on specific archaeological questions rather than on any explicit scientific technique.
Analytical techniques are applied for three main purposes, which are prospecting, dating and characterisation. Archaeological /prospecting/ techniques are used to locate unknown prehistoric sites or to investigate known ones. /Dating/ techniques are used to fix an event along a time-axis, which can be either relative or absolute. /Characterisation/ denominates a large collection of techniques used to extract more information from the usually quite worn archaeological material.
After a general introduction, I will make an expose of the activities at the Archaeological Research Laboratory: typical questions and a presentation of the facilities at its disposal.