Reburial of human remains from Avebury

[trowelmonkey]

There are two options on the freeze-drying front:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staff...336100.stm (very sensaible, good compost)

http://www.pet-animalpreservation.com/ (Personally, this is what I'd prefer. They could haul my sorry corpse around career fairs as a warning)

Never be straight-faced enough to make a convincing drood

[Oxbeast]

hey! some of us are eating here.

[the invisible man]

Haven't any of you lot got any work to do?????????

[Unitof1]

No

[oldgirl]

quote:Originally posted by the invisible man

Haven't any of you lot got any work to do?????????

Yes. But there are some natural breaks.

Back to the original topic though, has anyone else gone and filled it in? Thanks for drawing our attention to it Oxbeast, it was interesting to see.

Personally, one of my thoughts was that they would presumably need SMC to 'rebury' and I don't think they should get it.

[Oxbeast]

Thanks Oldgirl. I posted this on here becasue I wanted the views of archaeologists to be taken into consideration. The consulatation docs are quite interesting as well. The druidic submission surprisingly takes an accurate view of the origins of druidry (i.e. as part of Welsh and Cornish national revival in the late 18th and early 19th centuries). The fact that they are basing their claim on genetic continuity rather then continuity of practice just makes this group of druids look rather silly. What if you tested the DNA of this druid group and some of them turned out to be 32% eastern European or something?

I would be against reburial, as before long, there would start to be consultations about whether we could dig a particular henge or barrow. I'd go for option 3; ceremonies in the Keiller museum. I didn't consider the SMC angle as well Oldgirl.

[oldgirl]

I also went for option 3. I also made the point that for anyone not involved in this group or in the academic world, any other option limited their opportunities for study and understanding of people who were their ancestors too. We live near Avebury and it's a lot easier to get my 6 year old interested in the people that built these monuments if he can see something, rather than just telling him about things.

Mainly, therefore, my point was that allowing this to go ahead put the needs/wishes of a few people over the wider public who have the same genetic links.

[trowelmonkey]

Thanks as well Oxbeast. This one would've slipped me by, I've forwarded the link to a number of people.

I had a good old read through all the documents, the group's website and the other big pagan groups too for good measure. Option 3 stikes me as the only reasonable one. It was very instructive to read how engaged and positive the comments were from the public toward the display of human remains in the 1990? survey.

I don't like the DNA tack they are taking at all, was rantier about that yesterday.

Also, note that their survey only had 25 repondants and the very defensive tone taken - roughly paraphrased "some pagans refused to sign because they thought I was trying to start my own religion." That says it all really. Does anyone at EH have any further insight on what PF might have said because I have seen no evidence for their rushing in to support reburial, which is what one would expect if 90% of pagana are pro.

I get very cross when cliques try to hijack the common past (that includes archaeologists too sometimes, but that's another thread).

[Dirty Dave Lincoln]

TM- cliques have been trying to "hijack the common past" to further their own political/religious causes since..well, since people realised they had ancestors.

[trowelmonkey]

quote:Originally posted by Dirty Dave Lincoln

TM- cliques have been trying to "hijack the common past" to further their own political/religious causes since..well, since people realised they had ancestors.

Oh, I know [:o)] Maybe I'm just be an old idealist at heart despite the polished urbane veneer. It's just their tone that so gets up my nose :face-confused: