21st July 2005, 12:42 PM
I'm not aware of that happening with non-christian burials Deep. However, in cases of clearly Christian sites (e.g. Cherry Hinton, Cambs) this has happened - and why not? It is quite difficult to find a minister of the correct (often defunct) denomination to preside in these cases and quite often, I think, a selection of the local faiths are invited to attend. The table showing the different faiths in Kevin's link is interesting, as is the commitment to eventual reburial for 'some' of the remains. How they decide which ones deserve reburial is not clear, however. So, how one can be in complete agreement with such a vague policy is a mystery to me, it looks a bit like a cop out rather than a policy. Also the MoL skeles all (tell me if I'm wrong) came from sites that were under threat, not 'pure' research excavations so we're straight away off topic. I myself would endorse the widely held view that sites in general are best left alone unless threatened, for the usual reason that we will probably be able to do a better job in years to come....