9th November 2006, 11:31 AM
Beamo- greetings.I may have been making an assumption but I believed that most U.K Institutions at least, would require Membership of a relevent professional Institute as part of an Archaeology/Classics type job.Particularly when representing a UK Institution abroad.You make the point that I was struggling to get across-Academic Institutions at least
(forget the cardinal points bit) seem to leave agreed professional Institute standards behind when working abroad.I think, I am in favour of a Europe-wide discussion on the treatment of Human remains.I do of course stress that I am aware of just how complex the associated issues could become but, as a small step, I do mean in the context of Human remains disturbed from an archaeological investigation. I have been lucky enough to work abroad a couple of times a year recently and have mooched in large storerooms full of horrors and taken part in interesting fieldwork and post-ex
The poor treatment of any archive is in-excusable but my point here is that Human remains should/could be given different treatment from that of other "finds" groups.Some may argue that this could be seen as a basic Human right?As 1man1desk rightly says,there are both ethical and professional dimensions involved. Putting the ethical aspect aside for a minute, the sheer amount of data that is simply discarded or literally dumped in store-rooms is awe-inspiring.I recently had a conversation with a PhD student who retrieved pottery during the destruction of tombs abroad.The student told me that there was no time to retrieve bone as well. The PhD student is writing a thesis on pottery.Clearly, time was available to retrieve pottery.There is quite a scary trend of art historians and classics peeps excavating tombs particularly for ceramics abroad. The Human remains often don`t appear on a project design-the term "tomb" must surely be a bit of a give-away? I don`t want to witch-hunt institutions or PhD students
(lucky gits) but I hope you get the drift.I feel that at least professionally, a solid minimum standard across the board would`nt hurt.The ethical issues....well, theres aplenty. Who`s first?
..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad):face-huh:
(forget the cardinal points bit) seem to leave agreed professional Institute standards behind when working abroad.I think, I am in favour of a Europe-wide discussion on the treatment of Human remains.I do of course stress that I am aware of just how complex the associated issues could become but, as a small step, I do mean in the context of Human remains disturbed from an archaeological investigation. I have been lucky enough to work abroad a couple of times a year recently and have mooched in large storerooms full of horrors and taken part in interesting fieldwork and post-ex
The poor treatment of any archive is in-excusable but my point here is that Human remains should/could be given different treatment from that of other "finds" groups.Some may argue that this could be seen as a basic Human right?As 1man1desk rightly says,there are both ethical and professional dimensions involved. Putting the ethical aspect aside for a minute, the sheer amount of data that is simply discarded or literally dumped in store-rooms is awe-inspiring.I recently had a conversation with a PhD student who retrieved pottery during the destruction of tombs abroad.The student told me that there was no time to retrieve bone as well. The PhD student is writing a thesis on pottery.Clearly, time was available to retrieve pottery.There is quite a scary trend of art historians and classics peeps excavating tombs particularly for ceramics abroad. The Human remains often don`t appear on a project design-the term "tomb" must surely be a bit of a give-away? I don`t want to witch-hunt institutions or PhD students(lucky gits) but I hope you get the drift.I feel that at least professionally, a solid minimum standard across the board would`nt hurt.The ethical issues....well, theres aplenty. Who`s first?
..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad):face-huh: