Cultural Heritage can be defined as the physical artefacts and remains reflecting the legacy of a past civilization or society. For some years now, it has been apparent that such a study requires an interdisciplinary framework to be effective. Geochemistry and geochemical techniques have been used to study archaeological materials in the last decades to answer several questions. In fact, archaeology and conservation sciences have interacted more and more with physics, chemistry, biology, and geology in its endeavours to understand the human behaviour from material remains of past societies and to protect cultural materials from decay over time.

In the last twenty years, the increase in this research has led to an increasing quality of studies, results, and conclusions, as well as the growing awareness of the problems of interpretation. One significant result has been the arrival and development of nondestructive, noninvasive, or microdestructive techniques with advantages and disadvantages that still are being discussed. Other very different approaches, such as organic geochemistry, have also been applied to ancient materials, including the study of ancient DNA present in bones and organic residues found on pottery and stone tools. The continued expansion of scientific applications in the study of the past is one reason for publishing this special issue.

This special issue intends to review the state of the art on several aspects of the use of geochemical techniques in cultural heritage, including technological advances, modelling with archaeological data, and new developments, application, or uses of geochemical techniques in cultural heritage.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Nondestructive and noninvasive methods
• Microdestructive methods
• Numerical simulation and modelling with heritage materials
• New conservation and restoration techniques
• New testing and analytical techniques or applications
• Decay process of heritage materials
• Characterization of heritage materials
• Monitoring heritage conservation
• Historical research with geochemical techniques