21st July 2009, 11:19 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Oddie
The thread has indeed died.
Comments past page 13 have side-tracked to issues unrelated to our original request for the reburial of several prehistoric ancestors from the avebury complex that are of interest to pilgrims and visitors to the site and museum.
Issues relating to other ancestral remains at other sites should obviously be considered on a case by case basis, and not through this request. In this way, Council's request for reburial sets a precedent for Avebury (and possible Stonehenge), but not any other part of this ancestral Earth.
Paul Davies /|\
Reburial Officer
Council of British Druid Orders
Peace and love and light to this Earth, womb of the ancestors from which we are re-born
Oddie
I agree that the 'remains' are of interest to a number of people. Many of those people have different ideas of what should be done, most are likely to have an equal level of physical relationship (given the age of the remains)and so therefore have an equal say in law.
The proposal to rebury the remains means that the wishes of all the people who do NOT wish to see them reburied would be overridden by those who did wish that. It would also mean that these remains were no longer available for people to see and appreciate. Actually seeing human remains reminds many people of the fact that real people lived, worked and died in the lansdscapes and that those landscapes have developed and changed thanks to people.
That's quite apart from the potential damage to a scheduled ancient monument if reburial goes ahead.
And in the nicest possible way, unless someone has a time machine they're not declaring, it seems very unlikely that anyone knows what respect and rituals are due for such a reburial.
So, I still disagree with the proposal. I think that the case of a need for reburial is not proved (noone knows what people believed or how they demonstrated that belief) and there is a clear case that reburial would both damage the physical monuments and potentially damage modern peoples understanding and appreciation of our ancestors. Clearly that's only my opinion, but isn't that the whole point of this discussion? It's peoples opinions.