| The Public Bodies Liaison Committee for British Paganism |
Heritage, Archaeology and Museums
Honouring the Ancient Dead Statement
Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD) is an advocacy group working within archaeology, museums and other heritage bodies, for the respectful treatment and care of human remains and associated artefacts of British pagan (pre-Christian) and Pagan (pagan religious) provenance. Its remit is to ensure that secular and non-Pagan organizations and relevant individuals are aware of Pagan religious sensitivities with reference to archaeological digs, the handling, storage and display of remains, and the topical issue of reburial. HAD is made up of a council of Pagan theologians, together with Pagan and non-Pagan advisors from the fields of museums, archaeology and academia, and a team of volunteers. This allows it both to express the broad diversity of Pagan beliefs - from the pro-reburial lobby to those who see value in retention of remains - and to communicate effectively with professional bodies where necessary. It is happy to hear from all interested parties, welcomes new volunteers, and keen to consider all new issues and projects it might get involved in.
For further information: Please email HAD.
The Pebbble Statement
The issue of pre-Christian human remains and what is to be done with them has come to the fore in the public eye recently led by a handful of relatively high profile cases. Modern pagans have been making efforts to get ancient pagan remains re-interred in a manner more appropriate to their provenance than a simple Christian burial. In fact many pagans believe that to bury ancient pagan remains with a Christian ceremony is disrespectful to the spirit of the deceased. It could be said that any religious ritual associated with the interment of ancient pagan remains is largely irrelevant; those persons have received their funerary ceremonies and burial rituals already at the time of their original internment and as such no longer need our modern ones. Contemporary Pagan rituals would essentially be as alien to the deceased as a Christian one and have as little validity. As such, PEBBLE recommends that in the event of the reburial, no overtly religious rituals or ceremonies should take place and that it should be carried with nothing more than care, respect and dignity.
The modern pagan community in Britain is incredibly diverse indeed; with personal religious and spiritual beliefs taken from a wide range of geographic, spiritual and historical sources. To condense this diversity into a single unified "pagan opinion" would fail to do them justice.
As such, PEBBLE suggests that consultation should take place with pagan communities via the two organisations currently in existence to deal with the subject of ancient British human remains; those organisations being Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD) and Pagans for Archaeology (PFA), between whom the views of modern pagans in Britain are represented on the matter of ancient pagan remains. PEBBLE would also like to acknowledge that non-pagans in local communities will also have a keen interested in the fate of human remains and as such consultation should also take place with local communities, regardless of belief system, via the appropriate community groups.
Contacts:
Honouring the Ancient Dead
http://www.honour.org.uk
Pagans for Archaeology
http://archaeopagans.blogspot.com