Rehousing and safeguarding archaeological wood specimens critical to the cultural heritage of the American Southwest

FAIN: PF-287564-22

Arizona Board of Regents (Tucson, AZ 85721-0073)
Peter William Brewer (Project Director: January 2022 to present)

The sustainable rehousing of archaeological wood collections at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research used in dendroarchaeological study of the U.S. Southwest.

This project will ensure the long-term sustainability of irreplaceable and culturally important wood and charcoal collections at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Significant progress has been made towards securing these specimens (from the ancestral sites of the native peoples of the South Western United States and beyond), following transfer from highly unsuitable conditions to a state of the art archive facility. Yet they remain at risk in old, over-packed and overweight boxes, with little or no padding leading to damage from crushing or any movement. Rehousing has been identified as the final, essential step to maintain these collections for future generations. This process builds in contingency planning and mitigation for increasing changes in humidity fluctuations that may not be sufficiently countered by the current HVAC system for even longer term sustainability and accessibility of the collections.