Being one of the two laboratories specialized on prehistoric archaeology in Turkey, The Prehistory Laboratory is one of the best equipped units in the field of Archaeology in international level. Leading the role of Istanbul University under the field of prehistoric archeology since the 1960s, the Prehistory Laboratory has revealed, obtained and shared with the society the contributions made to the history of civilization in the geography of Turkey, the whole period of eight hundred thousand years, starting with the immigration from Africa and transition of Homo Erectus to Europe over Anatolia till the point when the writing was discovered for the first time in history.

Prehistory Laboratory operates in multi-disciplinary areas like Anthropology, Archaeozoology, Archaeobotanics, Archaeometallurgy, Experimental Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology, Geoarcheology, Micromorphology, Education and Training, Culture Sector, Conservation and Exhibition, Cultural Inventory, Culture and Tourism, etc. The laboratory also contains the richest collection of comparative archaeology in Turkey. Working actively with the ongoing research, Prehistory Laboratory is a place where pottery, stone, bone and clay finds from different regions and eras are examined and analyzed in terms of typology, technology and function. In addition, some other studies are carried out on animal bones and plant remains in regards to identify the typologies and areas of use. Moreover, the laboratory has the most comprehensive archaeological material archive of Turkey. The archive, which is shown as a referential collection, contains material groups such as materials obtained from 1645 ruins, sites and settlements, systematically layered samples from around 100 archaeological sites, material examples from the prehistoric cultures in the Near East and the Balkans, chipped findings from the Paleolithic Period in Western Europe, obsidian samples from all the sources in Turkey, the Aegean and the Mediterranean. These groups are classified under excavation sampling, survey sampling, raw material sampling, archaeozoology-animal bone collection, archaeobotanical plant collection, theses materials, course sampling, ethnographical sampling, model sampling, and then transferred to the digital media.