Archaeometry is the application of scientific methods and analyses to the study of culture in its archaeological context. Garnered from a conference called to study the material culture from North and South America, the book's twenty essays on a broad range of subjects represent the full scope of study in this field. They include papers by Ron L. Bishop on the compositional analysis of pre-Columbian pottery from the Maya region, Heather Lechtman on the materials science of material culture from the Andes, and J. Michael Elam and others on source identification and hydration dating of obsidian artifacts.