该研究中心利用生物、化学、地质、物理和材料科学的最新分析方法，旨在通过将自然科学和工程科学作为研究工具的一部分，分析与人类活动有关的材料的结构和性质，丰富人们对过去和现在非工业社会的知识。
CMRAE任务的核心前提是，在人文科学的框架内进行与人类活动相关的材料技术的科学研究，为我们所处的物理，社会，文化和意识形态世界提供了更综合的实现。通过这种理解，我们不仅可以更充分地重建材料在塑造考古历史中的作用，还可以认识到材料使用的演变是如何影响现在的社会的。
历史和组织
CMRAE成立于1977年，由波士顿地区的八所教育和文化机构组成：波士顿大学、布兰迪斯大学、哈佛大学、马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校和阿默斯特学院、麻省理工学院、波士顿美术馆、塔夫茨大学、韦尔斯利学院。
来自这些机构的一组教职员工设计了该中心，旨在促进知识共享、研究生教育和研究设施，从而促进科学，特别是材料工程与考古、人类学和艺术史的结合。
CMRAE的开放式架构环境促进和鼓励其机构成员之间的合作和共事，并且对研究生的教育需求特别敏感。
研究实验室
该研究中心在两大领域中处于领先地位:古环境与生态，包括遗址形成和古饮食;物质文化，或者说是人工制品分析。
考古材料研究由研究生和本科生以及所有CMRAE联盟机构的教职员工进行。中心的力量和活力来自于中国工程院大学和博物馆实验室中不同寻常的活跃研究小组的集中。这些个人、实验室和藏品构成了这个国家考古界独一无二的研究资源网络。
CMRAE研究机构之间的专业和设施几乎没有重叠或冗余，这有助于实现资源的真正互补和最先进的研究设施的广度。一般来说，所有这些实验室都对中国工程院的教师和研究生开放。有些网站收取用户费用，有些则需要预约。
Using the latest analytical methods in biology, chemistry, geology, physics and materials sciences, the research center aims to enrich the knowledge of past and present non-industrial societies by using natural and engineering sciences as part of research tools to analyze the structure and properties of materials related to human activities.
The central premise of CMRAE's mission is that the scientific study of materials and technologies relevant to human activities, conducted within the framework of the humanities, provides a more integrated realization of the physical, social, cultural and ideological world in which we operate. With this understanding, we can not only more fully reconstruct the role of materials in shaping archaeological history, but also recognize how the evolution of material use has affected society in the present.
History and Organization
CMRAE was founded in 1977 by eight educational and cultural institutions in the Boston area: Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts Boston and Amherst College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Fine Arts Museum of Boston, Tufts University, and Wellesley College.
A team of faculty members from these institutions designed the center to facilitate knowledge sharing, graduate education, and research facilities that promote the integration of science, especially materials engineering, with archaeology, anthropology, and art history.
CMRAE's open architecture environment promotes and encourages collaboration and collaboration among its institutional members and is particularly sensitive to the educational needs of graduate students.
Research laboratory
The center is a leader in two areas: palaeoenvironment and ecology, including site formation and palaeodiet; Material culture, or artifact analysis.
Archaeological material research is conducted by graduate and undergraduate students as well as faculty and staff at all CMRAE Consortium institutions. The strength and vitality of the center comes from the unusually active concentration of research groups in the university and museum laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. These individuals, laboratories and collections form a unique network of research resources in the country's archaeological community.
There is little overlap or redundancy of specialties and facilities between CMRAE research institutions, which helps to achieve a true complementarity of resources and a breadth of state-of-the-art research facilities. In general, all these laboratories are open to faculty and graduate students of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Some sites charge a user fee, others require an appointment.