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Human Remains and Museums: A Reading List
Questions over their value for research conflict with the ethics of possessing the dead, especially when presenting human remains in the setting of a museum.
Defining human remains within museums (or even using the term “human remains”) is not straightforward. The UK’s Human Tissue Act, for example, does not apply to nails and hair, and only requires consent for the use of human remains from people who died within the last 100 years
As with most museums of its size and age, the Field Museum collected human remains throughout much of its history. While there is important scientific information to be gained from research with human remains, the Museum recognizes that many of these individuals are ancestral to modern-day communities and that some were collected in profoundly unethical ways.
Abstract Europeanperspectives on the study of human remains, particularly mummified individuals with associated material culture, highlight the multidisciplinary research potential of these rare discoveries.
Should HUMAN REMAINS be in museums? What about other places where they are shown, such as in churches, people’s homes and funeral parlours? Should the rules be different for modern remains versus ancient, for skeletons versus bodies, for one culture versus another and if so, why and how do we determine where the cut-off points are? When are human remains ancient enough? Is it ok to look at Egyptian mummies and bog men, or should they be reburied and left alone?
In this week’s video from History Calling we’ll look at the tricky question of how we treat our dead and ask should dead bodies be on display under any circumstances? I’ll talk to you about how the remains of the rich and famous have been treated, from Tutankhamun to Henry VI of England, Richard III, Thomas Cromwell, the Russian leader Vladimir Lenin and even the so-called miracle in Missouri, in which a nun named Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster who died four years previously was dug up in 2023, found to be virtually undecayed and promptly put on display in her former church, with visitors allowed to touch her. We’ll also look at anonymous remains, including Irish bog bodies on display in a museum in Dublin and bodies volunteered by their owners for medical research and teaching. We’ll think too about how attitudes to the dead differ between cultures and time periods and the reasons for and against the practice of showing dead bodies to the world, including the ethical considerations.
Sitting in Australia’s oldest university are the ancient Egyptian mummified remains of a child. Marc Fennell explores the story behind how it got there and the ethics of displaying human remains in museums.
One of the major ethical issues in archaeology today relates to the study and display of human remains. In the 19th century and most of the 20th century, it was accepted in scientific circles to study and display human remains. In the last 50 years attitudes to the display of human remains have changed in many western countries. However, attitudes change from country to country. In Italy, there is a long tradition of display of human remains. In the last decades of the 20th century, codes of ethics regarding the ownership and display of human remains were developed by museums and relevant associations of archaeologists. In 1982 the council of Australian Museum directors passed a resolution that human remains would not be displayed in public. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) in its code of ethics in 2004 did not ban it. But it encourages sensitivity to the community. In Pompeii, the plaster casts which show the victims of Vesuvius have been a popular attraction for more than a century. The skeletons from Pompeii and Herculaneum have been studied to reveal valuable information about the health of the people. There are many questions about human remains. What should happen to the skeletons now? Should they be displayed? If they are displayed should it be where they were found or in a museum? Should they be buried? Other human remains. Pompeii is not the only place that has human remains. Egypt has its mummies of Pharaoh and other remains. There are the Chinchorro mummies of South America. There are also other human remains around the world.
Mummified remains and human skeletons enclosed in glass have acted as biological representations of history. Some museum institutions are grappling with the moral dilemma of what to do with human remains that were displayed without permission. Many Indigenous and Native communities have asked museums to return their relatives. A 1990 federal law mandated all remains taken from tribal lands had to be returned. But there are no laws concerning remains taken from private land or other countries.
Disputes over the retention of human remains in museums and other collections are further exacerbated by the common law’s limited recognition of the human body and its parts as property.
Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD) has completed the first major edition of its Your Local Museum database, which brings together records of ancient human remains held in more than 300 museums.
Although the ICOM Code of Ethics covers care and display of human remains (ICOM Code 2.5; 3.7; 4.3) natural history institutions, which frequently include human remains and sensitive ethnographical material in their collections, can face complex challenges. Thus, an opportunity exists to explore the ethical issues in greater depth than provided by the ICOM Code.
David Hurst Thomas explores the controversies over collections of human remains and plundered artefacts.
The British Museum holds and cares for human remains from around the world.
Representing diverse cultures over thousands of years, this important collection is a unique record of the varied ways different societies have conceived of death and disposed of the remains of the dead.
This document provides guidance for museums and other institutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that hold human remains in permanent collections. A definition of human remains as used in this guidance is given in the glossary.
'Mummies Alive' explores the stories behind some of the world's most enigmatic mummies. With the series spanning four continents and more than 5,000 years, each episode focuses on one mummy, investigating the preserved remains and using CGI to bring the cadaver - and its story of a past civilization - to life.