Druids reburial appeal rebuffed

[Windbag]

....do 'sky burials' involve a machete?

These days they usually involve interment within a large dish-shaped object facing the southern sky

[Dinosaur]

Oh well, worth asking. Seem to be running out of entertaining options, suppose there's still going drinking down the Bigg Market on a Saturday night wearing a Sunderland shirt, which would have much the same effect....

[Geli]

In answer to your query Chimp, the only criteria I can think of would be that the reburial of any human remains be precisely recorded so that if ever re-disturbed we would already know their provenance. Can't think of any other criteria that would be necessary? Troll has a valid point in that the Neo Pagans have in reality no direct link to the Pagans of the past (unlike the first Australians and Americans). I still wouldn't be personally be offended if Neo Pagans were allowed to bury pagan remains. I have often wondered if it is absolutely necessary to keep so many human remains boxed up and catalogued after they have been assessed and studied? I suppose they are a resource valuable to osteology?

[Geli]

I do not disagree with anything you have said Amiabledrudge, but I guess the issue doesn't rile me as much as it does others. I do like Gong and Hawkwind though! :face-approve:

[trainedchimp]

I couldn't have said it better than drudge... (except the atheism bit, but I'll take the chance on me being wrong on that).

Surely there needs to be some demonstrable link to cultural property before ownership of that cultural property is granted outside the collective?

I'll hide now before copyright is mentioned.

[alisdair]

Dear Amiable while I agree as an atheist with most of your post, I do have to disagree with your statement "i find it risibly implausible that there may have been some hidden religion passed down orally from generation to generation." Michael Wood in his 'Legacy:A search for the origins of civilisation' notes the case of a Brahim who in the 1990's appeared at a religeous festival and dictated a previously unknown and archaic version of the Vedas that on the form of language used was dated c. 3000 years ago in origin (appologies to you and Dr. Woods if I have the date wrong, I no longer have the book). In addition I note that modern scholars are now (including the aforementioned Dr. woods) willing to suggest that Homer's Illiad doesn't just contain a kernal of truth, and that it is important to understand the conventions used in the telling of the tale (i.e. the 10 year siege should not be taken literally, it is a convention to express a long time). That is in no way to excuse the utter risability (sorry for nicking the term) of modern day Druids and their claim to be the inheritors of ancient theology. As you well know, what we do know was written by peoples looking in, and looking in with their own often hostile agendas. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I believe there are clues to be found in folk myth/tales that do have the ability to inform the archaeological narrative. Up here in the frozen north there are several Gaelic tales that share a common theme with regard to Sithean (fairy mounds) or cairns to you and me. Now, all these tales recount the adventures of a protagonist on his way home about midnight (always a he, and always about midnight) and always a bit pissed who is seduced by the light, music and general merryment issuing from the cairn, and who cannot refuse the impulse to join in. Unbeknownst to the protagonist they are missing for a year, all the time dancing and having fun, meanwhile his relatives are nonplussed as to the disappearance and it is usually a fearless family member (usually the brother) who upon passing the sithean exactly a year to the day notices the brother and by the simple expedient of leaving a bit of iron on the threshold of the cairn is able to enter and retrive the protagonist, who always believes he has been dancing for only minates. I am no Neolithic specialist but is it not the case that repeated use of cairn forecourts has been demonstrated? and might it not be on a yearly basis? Dare it be that Dr. Pearson's Stonehenge extravigansa with it's evidence of communal feasting on an annual basis be the archaeological evidence of the folk mythology?

Who knows, but thanks for making me think!

[Dinosaur]

Wow!

Are there any Druid archaeologists out there who could perhaps supply an alternative viewpoint to liven this thread up before it disappears up its own a***?

[BAJR]

Ah the wonderful world of thinking... welcome :face-stir:

[Dinosaur]

....................}

[grindlecat]

'ken barlow' from Corrie was a druid...i meet him at Stonehenge in the '80s.....they had their own little compound, protected by the Wilshire police, from the mockery of all of us 'hippies', 'crusties' and bikers....says it all really....druids! my arse!