Science and the dead APABE consultation (Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Burials in England)
The Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Burials in England have drafted a revised edition of the guidance note – Science and the Dead, which deals with destructive sampling of human remains from archaeological sites for scientific analyses. The ethos of the document is very much as for the first edition in that it deals with legal, ethical and scientific considerations pertinent to destructive sampling of skeletal human remains for a variety of commonly employed scientific analyses. The scope is skeletal remains over 100 yrs old recovered from archaeological excavations in England. Updates are primarily intended to reflect advances in scientific techniques but also changes in other areas.
- The audience is as before: those responsible for caring for archaeological human remains – museum curators, university departments, commercial archaeological contractors, church authorities etc
- The purpose is to assist decision-making when such organisations are approached with requests for destructive sampling for research purposes, and to assist them to develop policy in this area – i.e. it is a document to assist collections management (in the broadest sense) rather than a how-to guide for researchers wanting to sample remains.
- As such it is written for a non-specialist audience therefore jargon is kept to a minimum and they have not included citations in the text.
They are now consulting with the sector on this guideline.
They would welcome comments on any aspect of the draft text, more especially the substantive content, the general approach taken, and the clarity and structure of the text. They will add illustrations to the document at a later stage when they have come closer to a final text but if at this stage you have any views regarding illustrations or have any opinions about the illustrations that should or should not be carried over from the first edition (which remains available on the APABE website), please feel free to voice them in your response.
The draft text is below and it will shortly also be available via the APABE website http://www.archaeologyuk.org/apabe/ The closing date for receipt of comments is 15th November 2021.