13: Summary—Whither Archaeological Chemistry?
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Published:16 Dec 2016
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Special Collection: RSC eTextbook CollectionProduct Type: Textbooks
Archaeological Chemistry, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 3rd edn, 2016, vol. 3, pp. 532-542.
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This chapter reviews the contribution that chemistry has made to archaeology, and asks the question, ‘How has chemical research changed the way archaeology is done?’ The influences are many, ranging from the development of dating techniques, many of which rely ultimately on good chemistry, to the many studies of inorganic and organic remains. Occasionally questions have been asked about the value of scientific applications within archaeology, and it is of course possible to point to studies which have failed to contribute significant new insights, but the many contributions illustrated in this volume should leave no doubt that archaeology would be significantly impoverished without high-quality chemical research. Archaeology is inherently interdisciplinary, and therefore the key to good archaeology is open, respectful, meaningful and iterative dialogue across the many disciplinary boundaries involved, without a priori privileging one form of knowledge over another.