---
title: Artifact Analysis
description: Artifact analysis focuses on the laboratory methods used to study recovered physical objects. Learners will understand how to analyze ceramics, stone tools, metals, and organic remains to determine their age, origin, function, and cultural significance.
category: humanities
subcategory: archaeology
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/artifact-analysis
---

# Artifact Analysis

Artifact analysis focuses on the laboratory methods used to study recovered physical objects. Learners will understand how to analyze ceramics, stone tools, metals, and organic remains to determine their age, origin, function, and cultural significance.

## Available Resources

4 Books • 2 Websites

## Books

### 1. Analytical Chemistry in Archaeology

**Author:** A. Mark Pollard, Catherine M. Batt, Ben Stern, Suzanne M. M. Young

Chemistry behind archaeometric techniques, then technique-by-technique treatment of atomic absorption, ICP spectrometry, neutron activation, X-ray fluorescence, electron microscopy, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, with archaeological provenance and isotope case studies. Assumes secondary-school chemistry.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521655722?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** archaeometry, archaeological science, spectroscopy, provenance analysis, isotope analysis

### 2. Pottery in Archaeology (2nd Edition)

**Author:** Clive Orton, Michael Hughes

Cambridge manual on ceramic analysis: fabric and form recording, thin-section petrology and chemical characterisation for sourcing, quantification methods including estimated vessel equivalents, sampling design, and the inferences about chronology, trade and technology that pottery data can carry.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107401305?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** ceramic analysis, pottery, petrology, archaeological quantification, provenance analysis

### 3. Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis (2nd Edition)

**Author:** William Andrefsky Jr.

Manual for recording and analysing stone tools and debitage: raw material identification, classification and typology, technological and metric attributes, debitage aggregate analysis, reduction indices, and a section on use-wear and functional studies. Assumes no prior lithics background.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521615003?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** lithic analysis, stone tools, debitage, use-wear analysis, typology

### 4. The Archaeologist's Laboratory: The Analysis of Archaeological Evidence (2nd Edition)

**Author:** Edward B. Banning

Second edition of the standard post-excavation textbook. Covers measurement, quantification, sampling, and error, then analysis of lithics, pottery, faunal and botanical remains, dates and residues, with emphasis on whether the resulting data actually support archaeological arguments.
The comprehensive anchor for this topic - it is literally the textbook for 'what happens to objects after the trench closes'. Covers every material class in the topic note in one volume, plus the measurement theory and data-quality reasoning that specialist manuals assume.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/3030479900?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** post-excavation analysis, archaeological quantification, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, lithic analysis

## Websites

### 1. Materials Science and Industrial Processes: Archaeological Science Guidance

**Author:** Historic England

Historic England's free technical guidance on studying production evidence: archaeometallurgy, glassworking, pottery production sites, organic residue analysis, and a national standard for pottery studies. Each linked document sets out sampling, identification, analysis and reporting practice used by UK specialists.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/archaeological-science/materials-science-and-industrial-processes/

**Tags:** archaeometallurgy, archaeological science, organic residue analysis, glassworking, pottery production

### 2. archaeological.org

The Archaeological Institute of America’s website offers archaeology news and feature articles (from Archaeology Magazine), plus teaching resources, fieldwork updates, and professional opportunities such as grants, fellowships, and events.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://archaeological.org

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, anthropology

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