**Preface to "Natural Sciences in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage"**

The eleven papers cover a basic range of topics from the interdisciplinary field of Natural Sciences coupled with Archaeology and Cultural Heritage.

All the works deal with material culture and cultural environment properly studies with scientific tools.

Many types of ancient artifact are studied for the investigation of past human ingenuity; thus, the remains of material culture and human artifacts, works of art, and human remains of organic and inorganic origins, are the subject of destructive or mostly preferred non-evasive techniques.

Multiple techniques are can be used for all these investigations and are used to support instrumental analysis including nuclear, spectroscopic, chemical, and electronic devices. The obtained data, after being suitably assessed, fulfil multiple roles: (a) documentation of the preservation of at-risk antiquities from natural, and anthropogenic destruction; (b) reconstruction of a past human cultural environment; (c) available to education and society; (d) development of sustainability for the economy, society and the environment.

The content of the collected papers deal with the aspects and value of legacy concerning ancient organic residues, the sacred landscape of the "Pyramids" of the Han Emperors, a cultural palimpsest in the lower yellow river floodplain at Kaifeng, a mobile augmented reality, archaeometry's impact on cultural heritage, sustainability and development, the emergence of archaeoastronomy, providing a suitable way to link past societies' ingenuity with the skyscape, sustainable governance with archaeometry for Wari brewing traditions in ancient Peru, 3D digital heritage models as sustainable resources, the documentation of white marbles of the Tomb of Christ in Jerusalem, the archaeological chemistry of the ancient consumption of Shellfish purple, and the investigation and documentation of ancient pigments.

These papers delve into the realms of archaeometry and the natural sciences by analyzing artifacts and deciphering the past. The natural sciences, along with archaeometry, strengthen and develop the spirit of interdisciplinarity, delve into the past and strengthen our memory. In the remote past, we meet our future, and enhance the growth of sustainability; the use of the natural sciences in art strengthens intercultural dialogue and this also fosters ecumenical values.

> **Ioannis Liritzis** *Editor*
