Dear Allison:

Under English law all human remains of the "Christian period", defined for
this purpose as the conversion of S.E. England by St Augustine in 597 AD,
are treated exactly the same as a freshly deceased person.  Any
disturbance is treated as if it were an exhumation, and requires the
necessary legal authority (from the Bishop in the case of Church of
England consecrated ground, from the Home Secretary = Minister for the
Interior in all other circumstances).  Chance finds need to be reported
and licences obtained accordingly without delay.

In both cases re-burial with due respect and within as short a period as
practicable bearing in mind any appropriate pathological or scientific
investigation is compulsory.  Normally licences will insist on re-burial
(or cremation) within 12 months, though in my experience an extension may
be granted if there are special circumstances, for example a large
number of skeletons to be scientifically examined.

No human remains post 597 AD may be retained or displayed by the museum
(or anyone else, e.g. university, excavation unit) except under the terms
of a special licence under the Anatomy Acts  (or the updated Human Tissue
Acts), and so far as I know such licences are only held by specialised
medical museums - usually linked to University medical schools or
hospitals.

However, there's no legal constraint on what a museum does with older
human remains (e.g. UK prehistoric or Roman period remains, Egyptian
mummies etc.), though both the international Code of Ethics of ICOM and
the UK Museums Association Code have things to say about this.


Patrick Boylan
(Professor of Heritage Policy & Management,
City Unviersity London)

======================

On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Allison Stombaugh wrote:

> I am a student at the University of Delaware and I am
> writing a paper on the collection and display of 10th
> century European sacred objects and human remains.
> Does anyone know of any guidelines for the display of
> such objects? Is there any type of law similar to
> NAGPRA that would deal with medieval European graves
> and remains? Which museums here in the US or in Europe
> deal with collections of this type? I was thinking
> along the lines of sacred religious objects or remains
> of any type but any other collections that may fit
> this category would be of interest to me. Any further
> information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
>
> -Allison Stombaugh
>
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