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Druids claim Avebury bones
by Bill Bowder
SEVERAL skulls and the bones of ancient people, including three children, who were once buried near the stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, Wiltshire, are at the centre of a debate over their future. Druids have demanded that some of the bones be handed over to them for reburial. The remains, which date from the Neolithic period in the fourth millennium BC, were discovered in the first part of the 20th century, and have since been held in the Alexander Keiller Museum at Avebury. One skeleton, who has been named Charlie, is of a two- to three-year-old child; he was discovered carefully laid on a chalk ridge and covered with clean rubble. Two years ago, Paul Davies, reburial officer for the Council of British Druid Orders (CoBDO), asked to rebury him. But his request revealed widespread concern about the proper treatment that should be afforded to such ancient burials. This month, English Heritage and the National Trust launched a three-month consultation to find out what the public thinks should happen to the bones in their care. The two groups said that CoBDO claimed a genetic relationship with the remains, but made no claim “for continuity of belief, custom or language with the human remains”. “It’s a tricky area, and the issues are complex,” Sebastian Payne, English Heritage’s Chief Scientist said last week. There was important knowledge about ancient ways of life which could be gained from studying the bones, and science was always evolving to find out more. But this had to be balanced against respect for the person. “The dignity of the human being is a widely held view, but, strangely, clergy can be more relaxed about this, arguing that once the soul has left the body, the body is simply a shell, whereas lay people are more conservative,” he said. Dr Joseph Elders, Archaeology Officer of the Church Buildings Council, said on Wednesday: “We have no problem if they are held for a time for research purposes, where there would otherwise be a loss to science and where it is not in the public interest that they should be buried; but they should eventually be re-interred.”The deadline for comments is 31 January 2009. Contact: Sebastian Payne, Avebury Reburial Consultation, English Heritage, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn EC1 2ST; phone 020 7973 3321. Further details at www.english-heritage.org.uk |
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