Should old skeleton be reburied?
A druid from Bath is at the centre of a fight over the fate of a 5,000-year-old skeleton.
A four-year-old girl laid to rest on a hilltop at Avebury ended up on display in a cabinet as the star attraction at a museum.
A public consultation has been announced on whether the girl – called Charlie – should remain on show at the Wiltshire village's Alexander Keiller Museum or reburied where she was interred. If her skeleton is returned to the earth it will set a precedent for other exhibits.
The Council of British Druid Orders says it is disrespectful to the bones to be removed and placed in museums or archives. Its reburials officer, Paul Davies, who lives in Bath, wants such relics reburied as near as possible to where they were excavated.
After talks with the druids, English Heritage and the National Trust have launched a consultation on the future of prehistoric human remains at the museum. Options being considered include reburying bones in a way that makes them either available or unavailable for further examination, or keeping them at the museum in a manner that shows respect for the druids' beliefs.
Comments
by Shaun, Bath
Tuesday, January 20 2009, 12:39PM
“If any followers of the religious beliefs of this child come forward they should be listened to. The views of a bunch of people following a victorian fabrication of Celtic beliefs does not in my view hold a lot of weight.
This is an important acheological artifact and provided it is kept safe from further decay and treated with reasonable respect it should remain available for science and education.”