Needs Major Revisions: Developing Ethical Guidelines in Dendrochronological Research on Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Dendrochronology provides critical information for dating and characterizing wooden cultural heritage, and tree-ring datasets from wooden heritage are increasingly being used with those from forests and paleoecological contexts in dendroclimatological and dendroecological studies. As advances in sampling and analytical methods expand the range of wooden heritage available for tree-ring analysis alongside their growing research applications, the dendrochronological community must also critically re-assess and develop ethical guidelines in our laboratories, professional societies, and research publications for analyzing wooden cultural heritage. Particular attention must be given to 1) unprovenanced objects (objects whose history of ownership and transmission is unknown) from private collections and for-profit organizations; 2) maritime heritage from commercial salvage operations; and 3) Indigenous wooden heritage (particularly materials from funerary contexts).

I give an overview of these issues, relevant heritage protection legislation, and the broader role that indiscriminate dendrochronological analysis plays in increasing value and demand for looted or stolen wooden heritage, encouraging heritage destruction and criminal trafficking, and in perpetuating disenfranchisement and dispossession of historically marginalized communities. To prompt further discussion, I detail efforts to enact such guidelines within my own laboratory and advocate that rather than relying on informal self-monitoring, dendrochronological laboratories and professional tree-ring societies should adopt formal, publicly available written ethical guidelines regarding sample provenance and descendent community accountability, like those adopted by the radiocarbon and heritage conservation communities. Professional dendrochronological meetings and journals (e.g., Dendrochronologia and Tree-Ring Research) should also adopt written guidelines regarding these issues prior to their presentation or publication.