This chapter gives a short introduction for aspiring archaeological chemists to the science of chemistry – its principal divisions, some basic definitions of atoms, molecules and mixtures, and the use of symbols for chemical compounds and reactions. This chapter is intended to provide enough information to allow the reader to understand the background of the material presented in Chapters 3 to 9, with more detail being reserved for Chapters 10 to 13. This material is covered more fully in any of the multitude of introductory general chemistry texts, such as Atkins and Beren (1992), or Cotton et al. (1995) for inorganic chemistry, Atkins (2001) for physical chemistry, and Brown (2000) for organic chemistry. The subfield of analytical chemistry is then described in more detail, including a brief history of its development. Again, there are several introductory texts to modern instrumental methods of chemical analysis, including Ewing (1985, 1997), Christian (1994), and Skoog et al. (1998).

What is chemistry?

Organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry

The simple dictionary definition of chemistry is the “science of elements and their laws of combination and behaviour” (Little Oxford Dictionary), or “1. Branch of science dealing with the elements and compounds they form and the reactions they undergo. 2. Chemical composition and properties of a substance” (Pocket Oxford Dictionary). More elaborately, it is given in the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) as “the branch of physical science and research, which deals with the several elementary substances, or forms of matter, of which all bodies are composed, the laws that regulate the combination of these elements in the formation of compound bodies, and the various phenomena that accompany their exposure to diverse physical conditions.”