In its broadest sense, "archaeometry" (or "archaeological science") represents the interface between archaeology and the natural and physical sciences. This interdisciplinary field requires close collaboration between archaeologists, art historians, museum curators, and scientists who apply modern instrumental techniques to extract structural and compositional information from ancient materials. Applications range from archaeological fieldwork to conservation of museum objects and historic monuments, including topics such as paleodiet, early tool use, provenance of ceramics and metals, prospection and geoarchaeology, dating, and art forgery.
Early archaeometric research was dominated by dating, technological, and provenance studies of inorganic materials (stone, ceramics, and metals). As the field has grown, new applications in biochemistry, soil science, paleopathology, medicine, and computer-aided reconstruction have attracted a host of new specialists and encouraged research on organic materials ranging from ancient DNA to plant phytoliths (plant skeletons). Similarly, advances in geophysical prospection and geochemistry have led to increased representation from those fields in archaeological excavation and laboratory analysis.
Source:http://www.isas.illinois.edu/atam/archaeometry_archaeology/whatisarchaeometry.html
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