Archaeology Testing: Methods, Technologies, and the Laboratory Science of the Past

Last updated May 2026 to include new dating methods and paleoproteomics.

May 7, 2026

The Science Behind Archaeological Discovery

Archaeology testing — more formally called archaeometry — is the application of scientific analytical methods to the study of archaeological materials: artifacts, biological remains, sediments, structures, and the environments that once surrounded ancient human populations. Where traditional archaeology describes what was found and where, archaeometric laboratory testing answers the deeper questions: when was this artifact made, where did its raw materials come from, who made and used it, and what does it reveal about the diet, migration, technology, and beliefs of the people who left it behind?

The last four decades have produced a revolution in the quality and scope of information extractable from archaeological materials. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating now dates bones using milligrams of material, where kilograms were once required. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating can date buried sediments themselves, reconstructing the timeline of landscape change and human occupation. Ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing — recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022 — has decoded the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans and mapped the migrations of prehistoric human populations with molecular precision. And palaeoproteomics now recovers biological information from specimens over a million years old, far beyond the reach of DNA.

ContractLaboratory.com connects archaeologists, cultural heritage institutions, museums, forensic investigators, and material culture researchers with forensic investigation and testing laboratories and genetics and genomic testing specialists for the full range of archaeometric analyses.

Archaeological Dating Methods: Quick Reference Comparison

 

Method	Material dated	Time range	Precision	Primary application
AMS Radiocarbon (¹⁴C)	Organic carbon: bone collagen, charcoal, wood, seeds, shell	100 – ~50,000 BP	±20–100 years	Dating organic material across all periods requires IntCal calibration for calendar dates
Dendrochronology	Tree rings in wood (timbers, waterlogged wood, structural beams)	Past ~14,000 years (varies by region)	Single year	Precise dating of wooden structures, shipwrecks, wooden artifacts, and climate reconstruction
Thermoluminescence (TL)	Fired ceramics, burnt flint, hearth stones	300 – 500,000 years	±5–10%	Dating pottery and fired artifacts where organic material is absent; cannot date sediments
Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL / IRSL)	Sediment-buried quartz and feldspar mineral grains	Decades – ~1,000,000 years	±5–15%	Dating buried sediment layers and archaeological strata; reconstructing landscape change and site burial history
Electron Spin Resonance (ESR)	Tooth enamel, marine shells, burned flint	1,000 – several million years	±10–15%	Paleolithic and early hominin sites; materials too old or unsuitable for TL/OSL/radiocarbon
Isotope Analysis (IRMS / MC-ICP-MS)	Bone collagen (diet), tooth enamel (childhood origin), hair (recent diet)	No time limit — relative measurement	0.01–0.1‰ IRMS precision	Dietary reconstruction (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N), mobility/migration (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr), provenance
Archaeomagnetic Dating	Fired clay structures (kilns, hearths, pits), magnetic minerals in sediments	~100 – 10,000 years (region-dependent)	±25–100 years	Dating in situ fired structures (kilns, hearths) where organic material is absent; complements TL
Amino Acid Racemization (AAR)	Shell, bone, egg shell (ostrich, emu); tooth enamel	1,000 – several million years	±10–20%	Chronological ordering (relative dating); age estimation for sites beyond radiocarbon range; temperature history reconstruction

 

Radiocarbon Dating: From Conventional to AMS

Radiocarbon dating (¹⁴C dating) remains the most widely applied absolute dating technique in archaeology for materials less than approximately 50,000 years old. The principle: living organisms incorporate atmospheric carbon — including the radioactive isotope ¹⁴C — through photosynthesis and the food chain. When an organism dies, it stops exchanging carbon with the atmosphere, and the ¹⁴C begins to decay with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years. Measuring the residual ¹⁴C concentration relative to stable ¹²C and ¹³C provides an estimate of elapsed time since death.

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) — The Modern Gold Standard

The original radiocarbon dating method (conventional beta-counting) measured the rate of ¹⁴C decay by counting beta particle emissions — requiring gram-scale samples and months of counting time. This approach was transformed in the 1980s by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), which directly counts ¹⁴C atoms by physically accelerating ions and separating isotopes by mass in a magnetic field. AMS is transformational for archaeology because:

• Micro-sample capability: AMS requires only milligrams of sample — typically 0.5–1 mg of carbon. Advances with mini-MICADAS accelerators allow bone samples as small as 3–60 mg to be dated, opening radiocarbon dating to rare hominin remains and precious artifacts that could not previously be sampled destructively.
• Precision and speed: AMS provides results in days rather than weeks, with measurement uncertainty of ±20–50 years for well-preserved samples, and routinely dating to within 30–40 ¹⁴C years.
• Material range: AMS can date wood, charcoal, bone collagen, shell, seeds, plant macrofossils, textiles, parchment, papyrus, ivory, and even ancient sediments with dissolved organic carbon.
• Combination protocols: AMS can now be combined with aDNA extraction from the same bone sample material, maximizing scientific information while minimizing destructive sampling of irreplaceable specimens.

IntCal Calibration: Converting ¹⁴C Ages to Calendar Dates

Raw radiocarbon ages are expressed as years Before Present (BP, with 1950 as the reference zero) and are not directly equivalent to calendar years, because atmospheric ¹⁴C concentration has varied throughout history. Radiocarbon dates must be calibrated using the IntCal23 calibration curve (the current version, updated in 2020), which was constructed from precisely dated tree-ring chronologies, coral records, and marine sediment cores spanning the past 55,000 years. Calibration converts the raw ¹⁴C age into a calibrated calendar age range (expressed as cal BP or BCE/CE) using statistical software such as OxCal or Calib.

Luminescence Dating: TL, OSL, IRSL, and ESR

Luminescence dating methods exploit the ability of certain minerals — quartz, feldspar, calcite — to store energy from ambient ionizing radiation (from naturally occurring uranium, thorium, potassium, and cosmic rays) in crystal defects. Laboratory stimulation releases this stored energy as measurable light, whose intensity is proportional to the radiation dose accumulated — and therefore to the time elapsed since the crystal was last reset (by heat or light). The family of luminescence methods offers the ability to date materials and sediments that cannot be dated by radiocarbon or dendrochronology.

Thermoluminescence (TL) Dating

TL dating uses heat to release trapped electrons and was the first luminescence method applied to archaeology. It is best suited for fired artifacts — ceramics, terracotta figurines, burnt flint tools, and clay hearth structures — where heating to >500°C in antiquity reset the TL clock. The age of firing is determined by dividing the accumulated radiation dose (paleodose) by the annual dose rate from environmental radiation. TL covers a time range of approximately 300 to 500,000 years with typical precision of ±5–10%. See also our dedicated guide to thermoluminescence (TL) testing.

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and IRSL Dating

OSL dating uses light — not heat — to release trapped electrons from quartz and feldspar mineral grains. This makes it possible to date sediment rather than artifacts: when sediment is exposed to sunlight before burial (e.g., during wind transport, flood deposition, or human construction activity), the OSL signal in the mineral grains is bleached (reset) by sunlight. After burial, the grains are shielded from light and accumulate a new OSL signal at a rate determined by environmental radioactivity. Dating when the grains were last exposed to sunlight provides a burial age for the sediment layer — and therefore for any artifacts within it.

OSL is now commercially the dominant luminescence dating method for archaeological sediment contexts, directly dating loess, alluvial sediments, aeolian sand dunes, and colluvial deposits. Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) uses infrared light rather than visible light to stimulate specifically the feldspar fraction, extending the datable time range and addressing anomalous fading issues that affect some feldspar applications. Sampling OSL and IRSL requires strict light exclusion — cores driven into profile faces at night or under heavy cloth — because inadvertent light exposure resets the signal being measured.

Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Dating

ESR (Electron Spin Resonance) is a trapped-charge dating technique that measures accumulated electrons directly in the traps, using microwave resonance in a magnetic field — without the need to heat or expose the sample to light. This non-destructive characteristic (for measurement, dose-rate sampling requires some sampling) makes ESR particularly valuable for tooth enamel and marine shells — materials that cannot be stimulated by heat or light. ESR can date specimens from approximately 1,000 years to several million years, making it critical for Paleolithic archaeology and hominin evolution studies beyond the practical range of radiocarbon and luminescence methods. ESR has been applied to Neanderthal and Homo sapiens teeth in the Levant and was used to date specimens at early African hominin sites.

X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF): Non-Destructive Elemental Analysis

XRF analysis is a non-destructive technique that identifies and quantifies the elemental composition of solid materials by irradiating the sample with X-rays and measuring the characteristic fluorescent X-ray emissions of each element present. XRF is particularly powerful for artifacts because it is completely non-destructive — the object is not altered in any way, making it suitable for museum collections and legally protected artifacts.

• Laboratory XRF: Bench-top wavelength-dispersive (WD-XRF) or energy-dispersive (ED-XRF) instruments provide the most accurate elemental analysis, typically covering elements from sodium (Z=11) to uranium (Z=92). Suitable for ceramics, metals, glass, pigments, and stone. Results provide major, minor, and trace element concentrations that can be compared against geological or production reference databases for provenance determination.
• Portable XRF (pXRF): Handheld pXRF devices have transformed in-situ archaeological analysis — they can be used at excavation sites, in museum galleries, and during field survey without removing artifacts from context. While less precise than laboratory XRF (particularly for lighter elements and complex matrices), pXRF has become an essential screening tool for rapid characterization of metals, ceramics, and obsidian tools. Important application: non-invasive metal artifact analysis detecting elemental signatures of ancient bronze alloys, lead isotope ratios (by TIMS or MC-ICP-MS for higher precision provenance), and glass compositions.

In archaeology, XRF is routinely used for: ceramic paste characterization (clay source identification); metal alloy characterization (tin-bronze, leaded bronze, iron, gold alloys); obsidian provenance (obsidian has a highly distinctive elemental fingerprint traceable to specific volcanic sources); pigment identification (verifying verdigris, azurite, ochre, lapis lazuli); and counterfeit artifact detection. For more on XRF analysis see our guide to XRF testing.

Stable Isotope Analysis: Diet, Migration, and Provenance

Stable isotope analysis measures the ratios of non-radioactive isotopes — ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb — in archaeological materials to reconstruct diet, geographical origin, migration history, and raw material provenance. The analytical instrument is Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) in two main configurations:

• Gas Source IRMS (continuous flow CF-IRMS or dual-inlet IRMS): Measures carbon (δ¹³C), nitrogen (δ¹⁵N), oxygen (δ¹⁸O), and sulfur (δ³⁴S) isotope ratios from combusted organic or carbonated samples. Applied to bone collagen and tooth enamel for dietary reconstruction and migration analysis.
• Multi-Collector ICP-MS (MC-ICP-MS): Used for heavier radiogenic isotope systems: strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr), lead (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb), neodymium, and osmium. Provides provenance information with geological precision. Lead isotope analysis of metal artifacts traces ore sources to specific mines.

Archaeological Applications of Isotope Analysis

• Dietary reconstruction (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N from bone collagen): Carbon isotopes distinguish C3 plant diets (wheat, barley, rice, most European plants) from C4 plant diets (maize, millet, sorghum) and marine/freshwater fish diets. Nitrogen isotopes indicate trophic level — higher δ¹⁵N values indicate greater protein intake from animal sources. Together, they reconstruct the dietary profile of individuals and populations.
• Migration and geographical origin (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr from tooth enamel): Strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel reflect the geology of the region where childhood diet was consumed — teeth form during childhood and do not remodel, making them a permanent record of early geographic origin. Comparison against a baseline isotope map of the region identifies migrants (non-local strontium ratios) among a burial population. This method has identified Bronze Age female migrants in Stonehenge burial populations and non-local individuals in medieval plague cemeteries.
• Oxygen isotopes (δ¹⁸O) for climate and mobility: Oxygen isotope ratios in tooth enamel and bone reflect the isotopic composition of drinking water, which varies with latitude, altitude, and climate — providing an independent migration indicator and a proxy for past climate and rainfall patterns.
• Lead isotope provenance (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb): Lead isotope ratios in metal artifacts can be traced to specific ore deposits, providing powerful evidence for ancient trade networks and metal supply chains. Applied to Bronze Age copper and tin, Roman lead pipes, and medieval silver coinage.

Ancient DNA (aDNA): Molecular Archaeology and the Nobel Prize Revolution

Ancient DNA research has transformed our understanding of human prehistory, achieving scientific recognition with the award of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Svante Pääbo for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. Beginning with his 1984 sequencing of short mitochondrial fragments from an Egyptian mummy, Pääbo and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology developed the laboratory protocols and bioinformatic methods that made the sequencing of complete ancient genomes possible — ultimately recovering the full genome of the Neanderthal (2010) and discovering an entirely new hominin group, the Denisovans, from a single finger bone fragment found in a Siberian cave (2010).

Why Ancient DNA Is Technically Challenging

Ancient DNA differs fundamentally from modern DNA in ways that require specialized laboratory infrastructure and analytical methods:

• Fragment length: DNA degrades after death due to chemical hydrolysis and oxidation. Mean aDNA fragment lengths are typically 50–100 base pairs (bp) — compared to thousands of bp in modern DNA. Short fragments severely limit the information content per sequencing read and require assembly from millions of overlapping fragments.
• Chemical damage: Post-mortem cytosine deamination converts cytosine (C) to uracil (U), creating characteristic C→T substitution patterns at fragment ends. This base damage is a key authentication signature — it distinguishes genuine aDNA from modern contaminants, which show no deamination patterns.
• Contamination: Environmental microbial DNA typically constitutes 90–99% of total DNA in archaeological specimens. Modern human DNA from excavators, museum curators, and laboratory personnel is a constant contamination risk. Rigorous protocols require: dedicated aDNA clean rooms with positive-pressure HEPA-filtered air; UV decontamination; separate rooms for pre-PCR and post-PCR work; sterile sampling and extraction procedures; and bioinformatic exclusion of non-endogenous sequences.
• Preservation conditions: Cold and dry environments (permafrost, arid regions) best preserve aDNA; dense cortical bone and tooth dentine are preferred sampling sites. Tropical and warm-temperate burial environments rarely yield usable aDNA older than a few hundred years.

Modern aDNA Methods

• Shotgun sequencing: All DNA molecules in an extract are sequenced without prior selection. Provides unbiased genome-wide data for population genomics; requires high coverage for ancient specimens with low endogenous DNA.
• Capture enrichment (hybridization capture): Biotinylated RNA or DNA probes complementary to target sequences selectively enrich the target aDNA before sequencing. Increases the proportion of target reads from <1% in shotgun libraries to 10–80%, dramatically reducing sequencing costs for targeted analyses.
• Sediment aDNA: A 2015 breakthrough demonstrated that hominin DNA can be recovered directly from cave sediment — even without skeletal material. This has opened ancient genomics to sites where no bone is preserved and extended the geographic coverage of palaeogenomic studies.

Key Archaeological Applications

• Population genomics and migration: aDNA from thousands of ancient individuals across Eurasia and the Americas has revealed massive Bronze Age migrations (Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe ~4,500 years ago), Neolithic farming dispersals from Anatolia, and the peopling of the Americas. These studies have fundamentally rewritten European and Asian prehistory.
• Interbreeding: Genomic analysis has confirmed that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals (all non-African modern humans carry 1–4% Neanderthal DNA) and Denisovans (Melanesian and Aboriginal Australian populations carry ~4–6% Denisovan DNA).
• Kinship and social structure: aDNA identifies biological sex, close relatives in burial assemblages, and family structures — revealing patrilineal burial practices, polygamy, and elite family lineages at Bronze Age and Iron Age sites.
• Ancient pathogens: aDNA from ancient teeth and bones has recovered genomes of Yersinia pestis (the Black Death pathogen) from 14th-century plague victims, Variola virus from mummies, and Hepatitis B virus from Bronze Age remains.

Palaeoproteomics and ZooMS: The Next Frontier in Biomolecular Archaeology

While aDNA has revolutionized archaeology for the last 50,000 years, proteins are more chemically stable than DNA and can survive in specimens 10 to 100 times older. Palaeoproteomics — the recovery and analysis of ancient proteins — has opened a biomolecular window into the Early and Middle Pleistocene, a period of critical importance for human evolution that is beyond the practical reach of aDNA recovery.

ZooMS — Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry

ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) uses the collagen peptide mass fingerprint — the characteristic mass spectrum of collagen peptides unique to each animal species — to identify bone fragments by species without morphological analysis. Applications: rapid taxonomic identification of degraded bone assemblages; identification of human bone among large commingled faunal assemblages without morphological recognition; distinguishing worked bone and ivory sources. ZooMS is performed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight MS) — fast, cheap (~$5 per sample), and highly scalable.

Landmark discoveries: ZooMS analysis of a morphologically unidentifiable bone fragment from Denisova Cave (Siberia) identified it as hominin, leading to targeted aDNA extraction that revealed it as a direct first-generation offspring of a Neanderthal mother and Denisovan father — one of the most remarkable discoveries in palaeogenomics.

Ancient Protein Analysis Beyond Collagen

While collagen is the most abundant and durable ancient protein, other ancient proteins have been recovered and informatively analyzed: dental enamel proteins (amelogenin, enamelin) survive longer than collagen and provide sex information from the amelogenin gene product; blood proteins in ancient tools have been used to identify prey species; and egg-white proteins in ancient ceramics confirm their use for food. In 2019, protein analysis of 1.77 million-year-old Homo antecessor dental enamel from Atapuerca, Spain, confirmed its phylogenetic position as a relative of Neanderthals and modern humans — an analysis 1.4 million years beyond the reach of aDNA recovery.

Environmental and Geoarchaeological Testing

Soil and Sediment Analysis

Geoarchaeological analysis of soil and sediment profiles surrounding archaeological sites reconstructs the formation history of the site — when deposits accumulated, what environmental events affected them, and how human activities modified the landscape. Key analyses: particle size distribution and sediment texture (indicating depositional energy and process); micromorphology (thin-section petrography of undisturbed sediment blocks, revealing micro-scale stratigraphy, burning horizons, and biological activity); geochemical analysis (phosphate mapping for locating activity areas; organic matter content; elemental analysis by ICP-MS).

Palynology and Archaeobotany

Pollen analysis (palynology) of sediment cores and buried soil horizons reconstructs past vegetation cover and climate — establishing the environmental context in which ancient communities lived and farmed. Plant macrofossil analysis (seeds, fruits, wood charcoal, plant fibers) recovered through flotation of soil samples identifies cultivated crops, gathered plant foods, and fuel and construction materials. Phytolith analysis extracts microscopic silica bodies from grasses, cereals, and other plants — preserving botanical information in sediments where macrofossils are poorly preserved.

Zooarchaeology and Faunal Analysis

Analysis of animal bones and other faunal remains (molluscs, fish scales, eggshell) reconstructs past subsistence strategies, animal husbandry practices, and environmental conditions. Laboratory analysis includes: taxonomic identification by skeletal morphology or ZooMS; age at death assessment from tooth eruption and epiphyseal fusion; butchery mark analysis by stereomicroscopy and SEM; stable isotope analysis for diet, season of slaughter, and herd management; and aDNA extraction for species identification and domestication studies.

Advanced Archaeometric Analytical Techniques

SEM-EDX — Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy

SEM-EDX provides high-resolution imaging of artifact surfaces and cross-sections at the nanometer to micron scale, combined with spot elemental analysis. Archaeological applications: corrosion product characterization and conservation treatment evaluation; ceramic thin-section analysis (firing temperature, temper materials); lithic use-wear analysis (identifying residues from plant processing, butchery, or pigment grinding); metalworking technique investigation (casting vs. hammering microstructures); and pigment analysis in paints and manuscripts. SEM-EDX is typically performed on small subsamples (micro-destructive) or on polished cross-sections of metal artifacts.

LA-ICP-MS — Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

LA-ICP-MS focuses a laser beam onto the artifact surface to ablate a tiny crater (typically 30–100 μm diameter) and carry the vaporized material into an ICP-MS for multi-element trace analysis. The technique provides a complete trace element fingerprint — dozens of elements simultaneously, at sub-parts-per-billion concentrations — from essentially any solid material. Provenance applications: obsidian source attribution (matching artifact trace element patterns to volcanic source databases); glass composition analysis (identifying production centers and raw material sources); marble and limestone provenance (comparing stable isotopes and trace elements against quarry databases); and coin and metal artifact production history. LA-ICP-MS is considered micro-destructive (leaves a small crater) rather than non-destructive like XRF, but sample consumption is typically nanograms — negligible for provenance purposes.

Archaeomagnetic Dating

Archaeomagnetic dating measures the magnetic remanence locked into heated clay — kilns, hearths, fired floors — when it cooled through the Curie temperature in antiquity. The Earth’s magnetic field varies in direction and intensity over time, and a regional reference curve of past geomagnetic variation allows the measured remanence to be matched to a date range. Archaeomagnetic dating requires that the feature is in situ (unmoved since firing) and provides a useful independent date check alongside TL dating of the same context.

Authenticity Testing and Forgery Detection

Laboratory testing plays a critical role in verifying the authenticity of archaeological objects, particularly in the art market, where unprovenanced antiquities can command very high prices and where forgeries are endemic. The key testing strategies:

• TL and OSL dating of ceramics: Detects forgeries by revealing that a claimed ancient ceramic was fired recently — the TL signal would be minimal because insufficient time has elapsed for electron accumulation since firing. This is the standard test requested by major auction houses and museums for unprovenanced ceramics.
• XRF for anachronistic elements: Detecting elements (such as titanium white pigment, introduced in the 20th century, or cadmium-based pigments, 19th century) in materials claimed to be much earlier immediately flags a forgery or mistaken attribution.
• Isotope analysis and element fingerprinting: Verifying that the lead, marble, or obsidian in an artifact has an isotopic or trace element signature consistent with claimed origin — and inconsistent with modern production or misattribution.
• Radiocarbon dating of organic components: Dating the ivory, bone, wood, or organic binder in composite objects. A claimed ancient Egyptian wooden sculpture that AMS dates to 200 BCE–CE 200 is either genuine or a convincing ancient forgery — but one dating to 1950 CE is definitively modern.

Finding Specialized Archaeology Testing Laboratories

Archaeometric analyses require highly specialized laboratories — AMS radiocarbon dating facilities equipped with particle accelerators; aDNA clean rooms with positive-pressure HEPA filtration and separate pre-PCR facilities; IRMS instruments dedicated to archaeological isotope work; and luminescence dating laboratories with light-controlled sampling protocols and dose-rate measurement equipment. Many archaeometric methods require academic laboratory partnerships or specialized commercial providers.

ContractLaboratory.com connects archaeologists, cultural heritage professionals, museums, forensic investigators, and government agencies with specialized forensic investigation and testing laboratories, genetics and genomic testing specialists, and chemistry and compound analysis laboratories for the full range of archaeometric analyses. See also our detailed guide to thermoluminescence (TL) testing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Archaeology Testing

Conclusion

Archaeology testing encompasses a powerful and rapidly evolving toolkit — from the classical precision of dendrochronology to the molecular resolution of AMS radiocarbon dating, luminescence methods for sediment chronology, ancient DNA for population genomics, palaeoproteomics for pre-DNA-era evolutionary questions, and stable isotope analysis for individual life history reconstruction. Together, these methods transform physical remains of the past into detailed biological, chemical, and chronological information that populates the human story with individuals, communities, migrations, and relationships. ContractLaboratory.com connects archaeological researchers, cultural heritage institutions, and forensic investigators with specialized laboratories equipped for the full range of archaeometric analyses.

To find specialized archaeology testing laboratories, submit a testing request or contact our team.