10 - Curation of Human Remains at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, England

Summary

Introduction

This chapter outlines why long-term archiving of archaeological human remains for research purposes is important. It then discusses a policy initiative by English Heritage and the Church of England that entails, where appropriate, the archiving of important collections of human remains in redundant or partially redundant churches. The main part of the chapter discusses an example of such a facility, at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber. The creation of church archives of human remains involves its own challenges, and the Barton-upon-Humber case illustrates some of these. In closing, the chapter discusses the prospects for the creation of further church archives of human remains in England.

Archaeology is about people and how they lived in the past. The study of human remains is therefore a central component of archaeological enquiry. Most would consider the acquisition of knowledge to be a significant benefit for humanity and, in particular, research into our past enables us to understand ourselves better. As well as being a vital source of evidence about the past, human remains from archaeological sites also help increase our understanding of some of the diseases that continue to afflict populations around the world today, for example osteoporosis (Mays 1999; Agarwal and Stout 2003), tuberculosis (Roberts and Buikstra 2003), leprosy (Monot et al 2009), Paget's disease of bone (eg Mays 2010a) and osteoarthritis (eg Rogers and Dieppe 1994; Inoue et al2001).