In the interview, Francis Albarède explains how lead isotopes inform about geological processes and how this can be used to reconstruct the raw material provenance of archaeological objects by answering the five questions: Why are lead isotopes interesting for archaeology? What is a geological age model? What is the link to geological and tectonic settings? What are the model ages and the mu and kappa values, which are connected to them? If you measure lead isotopes in archaeological objects, how do you calculate the model ages? Francis Albarède is emeritus professor at the ENS Lyon and one of the most prolific isotope geochemists. Among his numerous research topics, he extensively researched the isotope geochemistry of lead and its application to archaeological research questions.