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