Guidelines for reburial of old Christian bones

[Starlyte]

After years of uncertainty, archaeologists and church leaders in the UK have agreed a set of guidelines governing excavations of Christian graves.

The move is a response to calls for excavated human remains to be reburied on consecrated ground, and follows controversies over repatriating remains from North America and Australia held in museums.

Archaeologists are often brought in when human remains are discovered on construction sites for roads and houses. But what happens next can sometimes be controversial.

At present, remains excavated from consecrated ground are usually reburied, while bones removed from unconsecrated sites are retained for future study. But in the absence of explicit rules, local groups can prevent scientists retaining bones for study, whatever their provenance.

For example, remains from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, dating from AD 575 to 675 were reburied after a campaign by the local parish council, despite the fact that the graves were likely to have been pagan not Christian.

"Their research potential was massive," says archaeologist Corinne Duhig of the University of Cambridge. "But everybody caved in."

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