Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: Human Remains Curation in the United Kingdom
- 1 International Perspectives towards Human Remains Curation
- 2 Dealings with the Dead: A Personal Consideration of the Ongoing Human Remains Debate
- 3 Care, Custody and Display of Human Remains: Legal and Ethical Obligations
- 4 The Impact and Effectiveness of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums in England
- 5 Dead and Forgotten? Some Observations on Human Remains Documentation in the UK
- 6 Tethering Time and Tide? Human Remains Guidance and Legislation for Scottish Museums
- 7 The Quick and the Deid: A Scottish Perspective on Caring for Human Remains at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery
- 8 The Museum of London: An Overview of Policies and Practice
- 9 Curating Human Remains in a Regional Museum: Policy and Practice at the Great North Museum: Hancock
- 10 Curation of Human Remains at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, England
- 11 Archaeological Human Remains and Laboratories: Attaining Acceptable Standards for Curating Skeletal Remains for Teaching and Research
- 12 ‘No Room at the Inn’ … Contract Archaeology and the Storage of Human Remains
- 13 Changes in Policy for Excavating Human Remains in England and Wales
- 14 Conclusions and Ways Forward
- Appendix 1 DCMS Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums: Contents page and Part 2
- Appendix 2 MGS Guidelines for the Care of Human Remains in Scottish Museum Collections: Contents page and Chapter 2
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
11 - Archaeological Human Remains and Laboratories: Attaining Acceptable Standards for Curating Skeletal Remains for Teaching and Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: Human Remains Curation in the United Kingdom
- 1 International Perspectives towards Human Remains Curation
- 2 Dealings with the Dead: A Personal Consideration of the Ongoing Human Remains Debate
- 3 Care, Custody and Display of Human Remains: Legal and Ethical Obligations
- 4 The Impact and Effectiveness of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums in England
- 5 Dead and Forgotten? Some Observations on Human Remains Documentation in the UK
- 6 Tethering Time and Tide? Human Remains Guidance and Legislation for Scottish Museums
- 7 The Quick and the Deid: A Scottish Perspective on Caring for Human Remains at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery
- 8 The Museum of London: An Overview of Policies and Practice
- 9 Curating Human Remains in a Regional Museum: Policy and Practice at the Great North Museum: Hancock
- 10 Curation of Human Remains at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, England
- 11 Archaeological Human Remains and Laboratories: Attaining Acceptable Standards for Curating Skeletal Remains for Teaching and Research
- 12 ‘No Room at the Inn’ … Contract Archaeology and the Storage of Human Remains
- 13 Changes in Policy for Excavating Human Remains in England and Wales
- 14 Conclusions and Ways Forward
- Appendix 1 DCMS Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums: Contents page and Part 2
- Appendix 2 MGS Guidelines for the Care of Human Remains in Scottish Museum Collections: Contents page and Chapter 2
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
Introduction
The study of archaeological human remains can be argued to be the most important part of the discipline of archaeology (Roberts 2009a). Humans created the past, the past that archaeologists excavate, and without understanding how our ancestors lived and died it is not possible to understand the very structure of society. Therefore, without humans, we would have no past to excavate. Furthermore, in order to appreciate those people that created our heritage, we need to study their remains to gain knowledge about the impact of their environments on their lives, from birth to death. Of course, this works two ways; humans manipulated the environment (in its broadest sense) to their advantage, but the ‘environment' also forced populations to adapt to changing circumstances and this potentially had consequences for their health and ultimately how society functioned (Roberts 2010). For example, our ancestors moved to domesticate plants and animals several thousand years ago but they suffered the health consequences of that action (Cohen and Armelagos 1984; Cohen and Crane-Kramer 2007); however, that ‘move’ enabled a larger settled population to be supported. Another example is that of the Black Death in 14th century England. This infection claimed the lives of a very large proportion of the European population, which ultimately undermined the very fabric of society and how it functioned (Park 1993). It is also argued that archaeological human remains are, by their very nature, the remains of once living humans and thus deserve special care when they come to be excavated, analysed, curated and displayed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Curating Human RemainsCaring for the Dead in the United Kingdom, pp. 123 - 134Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013