www.stonehenge-druids.org

Blog - My Views on reburial...Beyond Aubrey hole 7

Someone wrote on another web site regarding this issue and I am grateful to them for they were raising arguments that I have heard others muttering and I decided to reply. Although this reply is personal, I hope that it makes clear my own reasons for supporting the reburial of the Aubrey 7 ancestors and my personal position on the wider reburial debate.

 

Concerning a group of pagans who stand for archaeology:

 

“Well, they are the realists. Pagans who actually work in archaeology, work in museums dealing with The Ancestors, other pagans who, reasonably, understand that if it wasn’t for archaeology, what we would actually know about paganism would be a few lines from Caesar.

 

For my part, I think I would quite like to be dug up in 4000 years, studied and displayed. I can’t think of a better way of honoring THIS ancestor

Oh, and I’d like the Rockers (Traditional Druids. F) to please take DNA tests and prove that they are related to the “ancestors” they want repatriated.“

 

 

 

My response which is my personal point of view is below:

 

 

 

 

 

Each discovery of ancient remains should be made available for scientific study for a period of up to two years, after which reburial should be the default proposition, but small samples could be taken for further analysis and 3D laser scans and photographs kept as a record of physical condition. In rare cases of exceptional scientific interest, then a longer term plan can be considered, but human remains should never be placed on open display. Reburial in sealed containers would ensure that if at some future date a commanding case can be made for disinterment, then the remains will not have deteriorated.

 

In general though, it should be remembered that these are the remains of human beings and that to disturb them at all is an ugly business, although sometimes on balance it is necessary, but to retain them longer than necessary is indecent. Stripping our sacred lands of our ancestral remains and especially our holy places is desecration.

 

You mention that you believe the Druids are trying to be like the native Americans and native Australians. Actually we are seeking a position where cultural and religious concerns have equal weighting to the scientific interest such that the science may continue AND the dead are not ultimately dishonoured or exploited.

 

Very many of the British people have ancestral links to the period of these ancestors; figures of between 40% and 70% have been quoted, but I suspect that you would not be happy with this and would only credit someone’s view as valid if they were a direct family descendant. In that case, I might suggest that if no archaeologist is a direct family descendant of the remains, then they cannot keep them. An interesting idea when you apply your same logic that way around, don’t you think?

 

In fact, the whole genetic argument is bankrupt in this instance, as we are the current priests of Stonehenge, with cultural links to that period of the past and a spiritual duty of care, so it is appropriate that we should speak on behalf of the dead and their dignity. If you started digging bodies up from a churchyard, you wouldn’t ask the priest if he was genetically related to the particular dead there of the first vicar; you would accept his view because he is the descendant by responsibility and role.

 

When we look at the knowledge gained by digging up our ancestors, it is interesting for sure, but has not provided a cure for cancer or solved the energy crisis; it hasn’t even solved the mystery of our origins and is never likely to. Each answer just raises further questions, and the theorists simply keep dreaming up new stories to challenge the traditions we hold dear, traditions which actually have been affirmed for the most part by the science.

 

Many of those theories, which rarely stand for more than a decade, can be highly offensive and even damaging to a living culture. The American natives were fed up with being described as primitive and as barbarians and having their tribal history and beliefs labelled as ‘Myth’ by outsiders applying western values where frankly they do not belong. They won their case for protective legislation on this basis alone.

 

Archaeologists here are terrified that we might do likewise, which is why so many of their academic cronies are trying to promote the idea that there is no Druid cultural legitimacy. In fact though, such legitimacy cannot be disproved on any number of levels, and we are being more than reasonable in the circumstances.

 

If a process can be agreed that evaluates each discovery of ancient human remains that is fair and gives equal weighting to the decency aspect, then this will help protect the future scientific freedoms rather than bringing them to a virtual standstill, as has happened in the USA. If they remain completely intransigent, the scientific community will force us to take a much stronger stance and challenge them outright, which puts the continuance of such studies at risk.

Some apologists for the archaeologists suggest that by digging up the dead we can tell their story.

 

This is not truly the case. You can tell at most what sex and age the person was, where they were born, what illnesses they had, maybe what they wore and the content of their last meal. You cannot tell who they loved, what made them laugh, how courageous they were, their favourite colour, what music they liked or what they aspired to in life, and these are the things that constitute a person’s story.

 

In many cultures, not only ours, to disturb the ancestors and to treat them with disrespect is to invite trouble. Whatever you might think about the spirit realms, in terms of whether they are real or not, if you assume not then you are applying modern values to an ancient situation which may be a severe mistake. Our forebears believed that the intercession of the ancestors for our benefit was vital to the well-being of the land and those still living.

What if they are correct and you are not?

 

If you would like to be preserved and gawped at by bored tourists for eternity, then by all means sign some sort of document to that effect and I hope that you wishes will be granted. Where no such permission is granted, then let’s do the decent thing, please, and lay the ancients back into the earth with honour.

 

 

Frank (31st July 2009)

Frank 31-7-2009