Code of professional conduct

SAM certificate holders, by applying for training accreditation, automatically commit to a professional approach to archaeological and ethical handling of human skeletal material. This includes:

• Helping in every way to ensure that human skeletal material and animal remains are preserved to the best of their ability during and after recovery from excavations and can be professionally researched.
• Action must be taken at all times to ensure that neither the subject in question nor the State Collection is brought into disrepute. This includes refraining from criminal or even discriminatory behavior of any kind (especially including racist or sexist behavior).
• Dishonest, fraudulent or corrupt behavior, in both scientific and business contexts, will not be tolerated.
• Represent the discipline, its possibilities, but also its limitations in a responsible manner. In particular, this also means that no exaggerated or deliberately misleading statements based on osteoarchaeological research should be made, for example at press events.
• Only assignments for which the necessary skills and knowledge are actually available should be accepted.
• When working on excavations in the Bavarian area or on osteological investigations of SAM material, the guidelines of the respective collection will be followed.
• Only excavations, findings and initial assessments that have actually been carried out by the SAM itself are considered responsible. If assistance from colleagues has taken place, they are to be named accordingly in the SAM report and recording form.