Community and Web News

Honouring the Ancient Dead is announcing significant improvements to its website (www.honour.org.uk) this month. It has been busy over the summer upgrading the website engine to introduce some new and exciting features making it even more dynamic, up to date and effective. It has focused on improving the delivery of information - specifically on the treatment and storage of ancient human remains - by adding:

• An online database of all museums in the country reported to be holding human remains;
• Improved menus and layout;
• Site search;
• News and announcements - allowing snippets of information to be communicated as they come to our attention;
• RSS Feeds - automatically updating subscribers.

With this new format HAD expects the content to be an even more useful resource for academics, museum professionals, archaeologists and Pagans wishing to engage in the debate. 

Founder of Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD), Emma Restall Orr said, "The debate about how our culture treats human remains is becoming increasingly topical. The Olympic development is excavating thousands of bones, the Manchester Museum has their controversial display of Lindow Man, while current digs at Stonehenge are throwing up new ideas and problems. How we treat human remains reveals much about us as a society - human remains are not objects to to be stored, studied and displayed; they are the bodies of our ancestors. Ideally, where appropriate, we would like to see them given a sacred re-burial. At the very least, we are campaigning to ensure all remains receive appropriate care from all those involved in their unearthing, studying, storing and display.  Such growing interest makes HAD's work ever more valuable".

HAD was originally created in response to concerns expressed by the modern British Pagan community following the perpetually debated plans to divert the A303 through a tunnel dug beneath Salisbury Plain to protect Stonehenge. Because Pagans consider human remains to be worthy of profound respect - many believe they are sacred - the potential fate of any remains unearthed during excavations causes considerable disquiet.  More recent concerns within the Pagan community include this summer’s 'Skeletons: London's buried bones' exhibition by  the Wellcome Trust, populated by twenty-six skeletons from The Museum of London’s extensive collection. 

HAD now aims to represent the claims of Pagan groups and individuals who are concerned about the care of all ancient human remains in Britain, ensuring the Pagan community is included in consultation and decision-making processes. HAD is also interested in the issue of reburial and repatriation of human remains within Britain. The group is currently seeking to repatriate Lindow Man, the well-known mummified corpse dug from a peat barrow just south of Manchester in 1984, from his current home in the British Museum to the north of England. 

"We are not claiming ownership of ancient remains," says Emma Restall Orr. "Our point is that these people are not objects for scientific research or entertainment. Treating them as such depersonalises them and affords them no peace. This inconsiderate treatment of the dead reflects badly on us, the living." 

Honouring the Ancient Dead is a British network organisation set up to advocate for ancient pagan human remains and related artefacts. HAD's main aim is to represent the claims of Pagan groups and individuals who are concerned about the care of ancient human remains in Britain, ensuring inclusion in any consultation and decision-making processes. Key areas of interest are how archaeologists, museums and government departments care for ancient human remains, through exhumation, study, storage and display, with a parallel focus on issues of repatriation (within Britain) and reburial.

For further details on HAD, visit www.honour.org.uk.