national human remains guidelines in england and the educational use of archaeological human remains...

National Human Remains Guidelines in England

and the Educational use of Archaeological Human Remains

Simon Mays

English Heritage

The Guidelines

DCMS EH\C-of-E BABAO

Educational value of human remains is often not emphasised in guidelines on archaeological human remains

• Ethical debates in England & elsewhere mainly framed in terms of research versus reburial

• EH / CofE policy of use of partially or fully redundant churches to store remains

Do we need to use real bones for university teaching?

• DCMS, EH\C-of-E & BABAO guidelines say yes!

• Models / casts:• Do not adequately reproduce anatomical detail• Do not reproduce archaeological reality• Do not encompass range of natural and pathological

variability

Should we use real bones for handling sessions at public events?

• Why would we need to?

• DCMS guideline: emphasises risks involved

• EH/C-of-E guideline: models / casts may be preferable

• Some organisations do use real bones & report no problems

Different criteria affect research and teaching value of a collection

Research Teaching

Large collections √ X

Good bone preservation

√ √

Tight dating √ X

Articulated skeletons

√ Not always

Ethical issues in the use of human remains for teaching

• Knowledge-based ethics: the preservation of the information content of a collection

Actions: obligate behaviours that ensure the integrity of a collection

• Respect for human remains:

What does respect mean in practical terms?

Actions: Only use remains for their intended purpose; refrain from actions that are not consistent with this

Destructive sampling of human remains in student projects: how

can it be justified?

• Imperative of preservation of collections vs imperative toward gaining new knowledge from them

• Likelihood of useful knowledge being generated that could not be gained in another way

• Educational value to the student