Archaeometallurgy

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Archaeometallurgy is the study of the history and prehistory of metals and their use through humans. It is a sub-discipline of archaeology and archaeological science. After initial sporadic work, archaeometallurgy was more widely institutionalised in the 1960s and 70s, with research groups in Britain (The British Museum, IAMS), Germany (Deutsches Bergbau Museum) and the US (MIT and Harvard). Specialisations within archaeometallurgy focus on metallography of finished objects, mineralogy of waste products such as slag and manufacturing studies.