13th February 2007, 12:30 PM
Maybe Bienkowski is having one of those 'let's be nice to the neo-Druid moments' and when he reads the newspapers he might acually wake up in the real world and stop rabbiting on about scientists' rights or lack of them.
One a previous thread in this forum we were discussing what the next big breakthroughs would be in archaeology (as part of the issue of why there is a presumption for preservation in situ). I remember claiming that the breakthorough would be in science rather than in fieldwork methodologies. Whilst I agree that we should show respect in terms of those human remains where we know that the wishes of the deceased were to be buried/undisturbed, the remainder (especially the prehistoric ones) are essential to our work as archaeologists. If we start to rebury human remains now, we will only end up having to dig them up again every time science comes up with a new way of recovering information.
Look at recent work on human remains such as the mitochondrial DNA analysis of Cheddar Man and those that shared a common ancestor with him, or the oxygen isotope analysis on the teeth of the so-called 'King of Stonehenge ' that suggested that he grew up in the Swiss Alps. This is cutting edge stuff and keeps archaeologists enthused as well as the general public.
Perhaps Dr Bienkowski could tell us how many of the inhumations from his Iron Age sites in Jordan have been reburied, or are they all still in boxes in the local museum stores awaiting further study ?
Beamo
One a previous thread in this forum we were discussing what the next big breakthroughs would be in archaeology (as part of the issue of why there is a presumption for preservation in situ). I remember claiming that the breakthorough would be in science rather than in fieldwork methodologies. Whilst I agree that we should show respect in terms of those human remains where we know that the wishes of the deceased were to be buried/undisturbed, the remainder (especially the prehistoric ones) are essential to our work as archaeologists. If we start to rebury human remains now, we will only end up having to dig them up again every time science comes up with a new way of recovering information.
Look at recent work on human remains such as the mitochondrial DNA analysis of Cheddar Man and those that shared a common ancestor with him, or the oxygen isotope analysis on the teeth of the so-called 'King of Stonehenge ' that suggested that he grew up in the Swiss Alps. This is cutting edge stuff and keeps archaeologists enthused as well as the general public.
Perhaps Dr Bienkowski could tell us how many of the inhumations from his Iron Age sites in Jordan have been reburied, or are they all still in boxes in the local museum stores awaiting further study ?
Beamo