News & Recent Additions

 The Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Burials in England (APABE) have now go their new website up and running.  

It can be found at : http://www.britarch.ac.uk/apabe.  
If you would like to comment on the website or the organisation, please let us know.  

Mike Parker Pearson who is in charge of the dig which removed the bones from Stonehenge two years ago has applied for an extension, seemingly until 2015 to complete a PhD.

 Here's an example where the value of respectful treatment of ancestors seems to be winning out:

It has been reported that skeletons dating from 1755 CE are to be reburied just over a year after having been excavated following complaints from the public.  

Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport said: t'It's got to be done as quickly as possible. This programme was filmed last summer. These bodies have been left unburied for over a year.

'They do have to carry this out in as respectful a way as possible. These are very old bodies but they are human remains and they need to be respected in the way that they deserve.'  

HAD wonders why these relatively recent human remains should get seemingly special treatment.  Why not write to your MP to ask their view?

Applied Cultural Heritage: How telling the past at historic sites benefits
society.
International Conference
17-19 November 2010
Kalmar, Sweden

We are now inviting paper proposals and pre-registration. Cornelius Holtorf

Archaeology, School of Cultural Sciences
Linnaeus University
391 82 Kalmar, Sweden
 
http://www.lnu.se
http://web.comhem.se/cornelius   

International Conference 
17-19 November 2010 
Kalmar, Sweden 

Contemporary society is in a process of transformation to adapt to new environmental, social and political challenges of global significance. We need to find new ways to address ever larger issues. In this situation we wish to reconsider the role of cultural heritage. Since the 19th century, nation states have drawn on the national heritage in order to construct exclusive cultural identities based on the paradigm of shared roots. 

As the world has been changing dramatically over the past two hundred years, we need to ask how cultural heritage and stories about the past benefit society today. 

• Which historic sites and stories about the past are important in creating meaning for people today? 
• How should the past be told and whose stories should we tell in multi-cultural societies? 
• In what way can historic sites promote social cohesion, human rights, peace and democracy? 
• What contribution is made by recalling traumatic memories of violence and oppression? 
• Which new ways are emerging in which cultural heritage benefits society today? 

The purpose of the conference is to generate discussion across a broad spectrum of possible answers to 
these and related questions. We will bring together researchers and professionals from a variety of 
academic disciplines and occupations in several countries. The conference will also feature a unique “Time 
Travel” experience applying a widely practiced method of historic environment education. The resulting 
dynamic of the conference will result in new ideas and provide practical inspiration for all participants. 

Keynote speakers (tentative): 
Bernt Gustavsson, Professor of Pedagogy, Örebro University, Sweden 
Jon Hunner, Professor of History, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA 
Radikobo Ntsimane, Deputy Director of Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory Work, 
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 
Henrik Zipsane, Director, Jämtlands County Museum, Sweden 
We are now calling for papers from scholars and professionals in all relevant disciplines and 
professions across anthropology, archaeology, heritage studies, history, human geography, pedagogy, 
sociology and tourism studies, among other fields. Presentation time for papers will be no longer than 
15 min. 

Please send your paper proposal containing paper title, a few words about yourself and an abstract of 
approx 200 words (in English) no later than 15 August 2010 to cornelius.holtorf [at] lnu [dot] se. You will 
hear by 6 September about acceptance of your paper. 

The conference is jointly organised by Linnaeus University Kalmar-Växjö (www. lnu.se), Kalmar läns 
museum/Centre for Historic Environment Education (www.kalmarlansmuseum.se) and Bridging Ages, 
International Organization in Historic Environment Education and Time Travels (www.bridgingages.com). 
The conference is supported by the Swedish Science Council (Vetenskapsrådet). 
Organization Committee: Birgitta E. Gustafsson and Cornelius Holtorf, Linnaeus University; Ebbe 
Westergren, Bridging Ages, Kalmar läns museum. 

For further information contact and pre-registration (to ensure receipt of full program and registration 
form): Ebbe Westergren, ebbe.westergren [at] kalmarlansmuseum [dot] se +46 (0)480 451345, +46 (0)70 6729406 or Birgitta E. Gustafsson, birgitta.e.gustafsson [at] lnu [dot] se +46 70 5477953

In August 209, a group from the The Longstone Local History Group digging on the site of an Iron Age hill fort at Fin Cop, near Monsl Dale in the Pek District unearthed a crushed skeleton, buried under the collapsd ramparts.

Since then, it has been discovered that the remains are those of a pregnant woman, thrown into the ditch as the stone walls were pushed in, around 30-200 BC. A second dig is being planned at the site, and the body is still being examined.

HAD is planning to contact the archaeologists to offer support.

Read more at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/8198985.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/8691348.stm
http://www.archaeologicalresearchservices.com/projects/fincop.html

 You can now find HAD's response to English Heritage's consultation outcome on the Avebury issue at HAD's project page.  

English Heritage has now issued its press release on the Avebury consultation.  If you have any comments, please send them through to HAD - we will be preparing a HAD response in due course. 

If you ever thought we make a fuss about how human remains are treated in this country, try reading this short article on how they go about things in Israel.

The spirit of Burke and Hare is being invoked by a local councillor in an attempt to preserve Victorian burial chambers under threat from archaeological excavation.  The interesting aspect of this case is that living relatives of those buried are concerned and are campaigning to prevent removal and scientific analysis of the remains in the now demolished chapel.  

HAD can completely sympathise with the current local community and their concern in this case but would like everyone to consider - why should the treatment of our ancient ancestors ever be any different?