Models and Metadata: The Ethics of Sharing Bioarchaeological 3D Models Online

Digital 3D modelling is increasingly common in archaeological recording, but building the models is only part of the story. Sharing and interacting with these digital representations is essential in fostering engagement and ensuring that research is relevant to the broader community. Projects and institutions understand that much of their communication and outreach now take place via digital platforms. However, archaeologists are faced with a variety of challenges when sharing 3D models of human remains online, including metadata curation, accessibility, openness, copyright as well as the ethical implications of sharing digital bioarchaeological data and long-term storage requirements. In this research, metadata from a collection of 3D models of human remains were extracted from SketchFab and analysed to understand how users share 3D models of human remains via online social platforms. The results were contrasted with a critical review of current ethical and technical guidelines, indicating potentially ethically compromising practices, particularly the lack of contextualising metadata for some models. This article proposes and discusses recommendations for developing more strategic approaches to the sharing of 3D data on human remains online, such as assessing and agreeing hosting, licensing and metadata management during project design. Frameworks are provided to support these approaches and make decisions on how to share data openly.