This chapter emphasizes the role of wood as an information source in view of modern archaeological and paleobiological research and practice. Tree-ring-based applications and other uses of archaeological wood data sets are overviewed. The fundamental nature of wood as a vital plant tissue system, valuable natural resource, and forest product are additional themes, drawing especially from plant biology and wood science (what is wood?). As an exceptionally versatile and almost infinitely adaptable biological material, wood has long served human needs for illumination, cooking foods, heating dwellings, firing ceramics, and a host of other subsistence and technological purposes. It has been manufactured into countless utilitarian and non-utilitarian objects and has formed the basic structural and finishing elements for dwellings and other construction of nearly all forms and types, on land as well as to navigate the planet’s waters. The forms and variety of preservation states in which wood occurs archaeologically are overviewed in this opening chapter, along with initial discussion of the inherent complexities and some of the difficulties involved in work with ancient material. This chapter also provides suggestions and guidance on education and training for work with archaeological wood, emphasizing the importance of understanding wood from both humanistic and plant biological standpoints to enhance archaeological interpretation.