Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (Headquarters)

Posted August 26th, 2008 by phl.costelloe
Location: 
Discovery Museum
Location: 
Blandford Square
Location: 
Newcastle upon Tyne
Location: 
Tyne and Wear
Location: 
NE1 4JA
Telephone: 
0191 222 3406
Museum Website: 
Museum Webpages
Parent Organisation: 
Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums
Funding Organisation: 
Local authority, university and other
YLM Questionnaire Completed: 
Yes
Comment: 

Covers a number of museums in the Northumberland area.  Comments from the senior manager at Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums: "The main museums with holdings of human remains are the Great North Museum: Hancock, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and South Shields Roman Fort.  
Every effort has been made to provide accurate information.  But the collections are difficult to quantify exactly as not all the material can easily be separated into individuals.  The Whitton Hill cremations, for instance, contain 16 and 23 individuals each, but have been counted as 2 human remains because they were buried as mixed groups and it is impossible to separate out all of the individuals." 

Disposal Policy: 
Yes
HR Count: 
133
HR Count Pre-Christian: 
19
How many of these human remains are well documented, with clear context of date and place of exhumation?: 
27
Where there are human remains in store, is there a history of use?: 
Yes
Where there are human remains in store, is there potential for use, in display, education or scientific analysis?: 
Yes
Does the museum have a disposal policy, and is it including HR with negligible potential in its discussions about disposal?: 
Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums have a formal disposal policy, which covers our holdings of human remains. We also follow DCMS guidelines on this material. There is a strong presumption against disposal. Some non British material has been repatriated to Australia and New Zealand.
What sources of information about these human remains are in the public domain and where?: 
Many of our human remains have been published in specialist reports, or in academic journals, such as Archaeologia Aeliana. Eg. Ford, W. and Miket, R. 1982 ‘An urned cremation from Warden Law, Tyne and Wear’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th ser, 10, 53 – 9 Miket, R. 1985 ‘Ritual enclosures at Whitton Hill, Northumberland’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 51, 137 – 148 (2 reports). Tyne and Wear Museums and Archives also provide an extensive programme of public lectures, as an additional source of public information. For example the recent Lindow Man exhibition at the Great North Museum: Hancock was supported by a series of lectures on various related topics.
Are any of these remains currently on display and in what context?: 
At present we have four Bronze Age burials on display, within their cists and with their associated grave goods. All are displayed within the context of the local history of the area. There are also two Egyptian mummies, Irtyru and Bakt en Hor, on display. Again these form part of display about Egyptian burial practices and beliefs about the afterlife. For the Great North Museum: Hancock, which opened in May 2009, there was extensive public consultation on all the galleries and their content. Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums have appropriate mechanisms in place for public feedback on all of our museums and we take all of our visitors’ comments seriously. We have had no comments on any of our displays of human remains.
Does the museum hold any iconic HR, i.e. figures of local or national importance, and are these on display?: 
The definition of iconic is not clear but the museums do not hold anything to compare with, for example Lindow Man or the Ice Man. The nearest we have to these would be the two mummies Irtyru and Bakt en Hor on display in the Great North Museum Hancock.