About the Laboratory
The application of scientific techniques to the study of archaeological materials offers exciting new opportunities for scholars investigating the human past, transforming our ability to reconstruct and understand the history of past societies and cultures through interdisciplinary, collaborative research.
The Wiener Laboratory, inaugurated in June 1992, is an integral, independently funded department of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. It provides state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, extensive comparative collections, and funding for independent scientific research while simultaneously helping members of the academic community of the School better understand how scientific methods can provide new context to their own philological, classical and historical research.
The lab was founded to serve the interests of archaeological scholars in Greece through long-range, multidimensional programs of research focused primarily on human osteology, faunal analysis, organic residue studies, and a range of geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental research encompassing lithic, ceramic, mortar/cement, soil, pollen and palaeobotanical subjects. The geographical range of the research extends across the Mediterranean and includes sites in the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt and Cyprus in addition to Greece.
Since it opened, the lab has facilitated the independent research of over 100 scholars representing more than a dozen countries. Its facilities and equipment were designed to support the widest possible range of basic research consistent with the range of academic interests at the School. Participation in a strong collaborative network of international laboratories offers access to additional resources provided by such institutions as the Fitch Laboratory at the British School at Athens, the Marine Biology Institute on Crete, University of Bristol, Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, University College London, Boston University, and the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory, among numerous other international and intra-Greece institutions.
In addition to its research resources, the Wiener Laboratory provides education to members of the School and to the local and scientific communities through lectures, independent publications, consultations, and hands-on workshops.