The first time I held a bog-oak sample in my hands (from a tree that had lived around 7,000 years ago in bogs of this very Rhine delta), I decided that dendrochronology would be my path. Early in my academic career, I became fascinated by applying dendrochronology (tree-ring science) to reconstruct past environments and answer historical questions. Wood preserved in objects and structures of all (pre)historical periods represents material evidence of the use of local and imported timber, and an environmental and historical archive that dendrochronological methods can unlock. As a tree-ring scientist with a mixed background in Forestry Engineering (BSc, MSc) and Historical and Natural Heritage (MA, PhD), my research ambition is to understand how humans have used, managed and traded forest timber resources since ancient times.