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Traditional archaeology is the study of remains or artifacts left behind by ancient civilizations. Archaeological "science" takes this a step further by employing high tech solutions to afe old questions.
Archaeological science includes several areas of study. Physical and chemical dating provides archaeologists with complete, accurate, chronologies. It also allows for environmental approaches informing us on ancient climates, landscapes, plant life, etc. Science is applied to artifacts, enabling archeologists to know how old an object might be, what it was made from, what type of whethering it might have endured, and then can compare this artifact to artifacts from other periods; allowing them to make reasonable comparisons and to see into the changes that occurred over large time spans. One of the most important and talked-about archaeological sciences has been the absolute dates assigned to artifacts. Some of these methods are; Radiocarbon dating (provides accurate age of most organic materials), Dendrochronology (used for trees and in conjunction w/ Radiocarbon dating), Thermoluminescence dating (useful on objects such as ceramics or pottery), and Optically Stimulated Luminescence which dates and profiles covered land surfaces. Also employed is a method called Potassium-argon dating which is used expressly for dating the age of hominid (that's us!) remains. Lead, strontium and oxygen isotope analysis is also used with human remains and can often determine the diet and the even birthplace of the fossil.

Archaeological science is basically a term describing many scientific methods which are used to help archaeologists discover answers about the artifacts which they have previously only been able to speculate over. It's the reason we know how old an artifact is, where it came from, what type of landscape it endured, and even where to find it in the first place!

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