28th July 2005, 12:21 PM
A key issue here is consultation. Views in this area are often highly charged and may contradict themselves. For example, many people would not object to the relocation of a charnel pit, as happened a few years ago at Hereford. The same people might object to the disturbance of graves seen as a final resting place. I've heard about digs in Islamic countries where authorities were quite happy for burials to be disturbed, as long as they were pre-Islamic. And i've heard about excavations in Palestine where they brought in the Orthodox community to deal with the remains of the Christians.
The problem I can see with the principle of treating people as they would want to be treated is that you simply can't know what the beliefs of people were in the prehistoric, for example. I have no problem with disturbing remains in principle, but I think it should be up to archaeologists to avoid offending local communities, whatevre they are.
The problem I can see with the principle of treating people as they would want to be treated is that you simply can't know what the beliefs of people were in the prehistoric, for example. I have no problem with disturbing remains in principle, but I think it should be up to archaeologists to avoid offending local communities, whatevre they are.