Bones of Contention, Scientific Inquiry and the Sanctity of the Dead

“ What right have we to declare that the mummies must be left undisturbed, when their examination will give us vitally important information regarding the history and early development of diseases—information which is of real, practical value to mankind? ”

“ Maspero was terribly upset at the loss of the mummy, so upset that he refused to allow the mummy of Rameses the Great to be unwrapped, for fear it, too, should vanish.
For things cannot last for ever, even in the dry air of Egypt. They cannot spend thousands of years in tombs without becoming fragile. Their preservation is therefore imperative. Everything must be photographed from many angles, in order to provide a complete record in pictures. In the case of the treasures of Tutankhamen, electric lamps of 2000 candle-power were installed in the tomb, for the use of the photographer. ”

“ Rock-tomb and pyramid were for the same purpose, the eternal security of the mummy.
That purpose has failed; the burial-place was on too grand a scale, its contents were too tempting. There is no security for any one after death but obscurity; to preserve one's body is to lose it. The bones must be consumed if they would be safe, or else the owner of them must be a patriot and gain a forgotten grave. ”

“ The difficulty of obtaining mummies enough to satisfy the demand, gave rise to an abominable traffic, against which many physicians remonstrated. “The base avidity of gain increased daily, and they commenced embalming with salt and alum the bodies of those who had died of leprosy, of plague, or small pox, in order to obtain, in the course of a few months, the cadaverous rottenness which flowed from them, and to sell this for true and legitimate mummy ”

“ The original incentive to the invention of this essentially Egyptian art was the desire to protect and secure the welfare of the dead. The importance attached to this aim was intimately associated with the development of the practice of mummification.
With this tangible and persistent evidence of the general scheme of spread of the arts of building I can now turn to the consideration of some of the other, more vital, manifestations of human thought and aspirations, which also, like the "matrix of civilization" itself, grew up in intimate association with the practice of embalming the dead. ”

“ Everyone immediately concerned with the problem of Tutankhamen’s mummy agrees that, if it is feasible, it should be left in its own tomb and adequately protected there after a thorough examination of it has been made, and all the information as to age and infirmities which the X-rays can afford has been obtained. The late Lord Carnarvon was strongly in favour of 128 this course of action, and Mr Howard Carter has always been in favour of leaving the mummies in their tombs. ”

“ Hence, in recovering the history of Egyptian cultural development, we are really probing into the sources of the customs and beliefs of53 our own everyday life and experience. Thus we must regard mummification as something more than an eccentric practice that excites our curiosity. For it played a fundamental part in shaping the development of civilization, both its arts and crafts, as well as its most vital customs and beliefs. ”

“ Peter’s, as at so many other ancient sites, what the archaeologist digs up is not things but people. The remains in the niche under the Red Wall are not dry bones; they are live history. The breathing of life into that history is a major and largely unsung triumph of the modern science of archaeology, patiently at work over the last eighty years. To come to know a fragment of our past is to recognize a piece of ourselves. Perhaps, as archaeology interprets history, making the mute stones speak, we may come to know our past so well that we shall not be condemned to repeat it. ”

“ This minute attention, moreover, was not only given to the works of man, but even the remains of humanity received the attention they merited. It has been rightly thought, during recent years, that the question of race was a factor that deserved treatment in dealing with works of art of early times; and that natural evolution due to man’s tendency to change with time, might not be sufficient to account for the differences of type observed in human remains from the same country. For this reason, not only the objects associated with the burial have been preserved, but also the skeleton itself. ”

“ Agreeing as I cordially do with his wish, that neither superstition, affectation, whatever that may mean, idle curiosity, or avarice, were the motives which actuate those who molest the relics of the dead, I cannot allow that neither dust and ashes, bones, nor teeth, have any intelligence to give us; nor yet that by the reverential scrutiny of those relics the living can be neither benefited nor improved. ”

“ Munizaga et al. (1978) concluded that an Atacamena Indian mummy dating to the 3rd century CE might have died of complications from jejunum strangulation caused by herniation into the thoracic cavity. This remains the sole Bochdalek CDH case ever reported on the basis of an archaeological investigation [2] .
Over the past several years, 16th to 19th century Korean mummies have come to be recognized as excellent subjects for studies on pre-modern Korean peoples and societies. ”

“ The procedure in scientific excavation is directed to collecting and interpreting all the information that can be obtained from the excavation as to the history and nature of the site explored, be it town, temple, house, cemetery or individual grave, wasting no evidence that results from it touching the endless problems which scientific archaeology affords—whether in regard to arts and crafts, manners and customs, language, history or beliefs. ”

“ To secure an attractive specimen, a tomb will be wrecked, a wall destroyed, a temple dragged to pieces and its history lost, a cemetery cleared out with no record of its burials. And when carefully authenticated and recorded specimens reach museums, their fate is not yet a safe one, especially in local museums. Stones will be built into walls, and ruined by the damp bringing salt out; objects are left to drop to pieces from lack of chemical knowledge, or from the official dread of the responsibility of doing right instead of allowing wrong. ”

“ Our museums are ghastly charnel-houses of murdered evidence; the dry bones of objects are there, bare of all the facts of grouping, locality, and dating which would give them historical life and value. And it is only the self-evident facts of age that we already know, which can be observed in such a useless condition. So ignorant are49 curators that they will even divide up a tomb-group of objects, which are the keys to knowledge, and foolishly scatter them up and down the galleries merely as second-rate specimens of what is already there, without any date or history. ”

“ With the responsibilities before us of saving and caring for this past life of mankind, what must be our ethical view of the rights and duties of an archaeologist? Conservation must be his first duty, and where needful even destruction of the less important in order to conserve the more important. To uncover a monument, and leave it to perish by exposure or by plundering, to destroy thus what has lasted for thousands of years and might last for thousands to come, is a crime. ”

“ To unearth whole tombs or chambers full of objects, whether in an Egyptian cemetery or a Roman camp, and neglect to record and publish the facts of the position or groups of the objects, should debar the inefficient explorer from ever touching such places again. To remove things without ascertaining all that is possible about their age, meaning, and connections, is as inexcusable as it is easy. ”

“ The fact that excavation so often involves the disturbance of the dead makes it a very serious matter, not to be entered into in any but a purely scientific spirit. But there are also other reasons for regarding excavation as in no way a sport.
The archæologist who lays bare an intact burial takes upon himself a grave responsibility. If we admit that the study of the ancient Egyptians is of any value to mankind, then we must also allow that the excavator has a duty to the world to perform when he enters an ancient sepulchre and is confronted by the antiquities which are stored there. ”

“ The first requirement for systematic work of study is material sufficient to work on. And to provide this there must be both discovery and conservation. During the last century there has been a gradual growth of archaeological perception; and in place of only caring for beautiful and striking objects there has arisen some interest in whatever can throw light on the past civilisations. But unhappily the ideas of conservation have not kept pace with the work of discovery. The present system of museums is the most serious bar to the progress of archaeology. ”

“ Obtaining access to specimens for research, however, is not always practical and frequently conflicts with the need to maintain the physical integrity of specimens and the collection as a whole. Non-invasive three-dimensional (3D) digital imaging therefore serves a critical role in facilitating the digitization of these specimens for anatomical and morphological analysis as well as facilitating an efficient method for online storage and sharing of this imaging data. ”

“ Images were reviewed with lung, bone and soft tissue settings on multi-planar format (axial, sagittal, and coronal images) on a work station (Advantage Windows Workstation 4.3, GE healthcare) . In total, 2465 axial scans were utilized in this study.
For the purposes of comparisons with the current CDH case, we employed CT images of another Joseon-era Korean mummy. He was found in a Joseon tomb on November of 2007 (nick-named the Gangneung mummy) . According to historical documentation, a male was born in 1561 and died in 1622 at the age of 61. ”

“ Extensive morphological or developmental studies can thus be carried out, although anaesthetic substances may have to be applied to reduce movement artefacts during the long scanning times that are needed for high-resolution datasets and 3D reconstructions. Another very important advantage of non-invasive imaging techniques in general is the fact that the digitally acquired image stacks do not have to be manually aligned, as is the case with digital pictures from histological or electronmicroscopical sections. ”

“ But these benefits come at the cost of increasingly sophisticated (and expensive) imaging devices that often require specialized facilities and staff, meticulous specimen preparation methods designed to enhance tissue contrast while mitigating imaging artefacts, exceedingly complex volumetric data that require advanced computational methods for analysis and visualization, and sophisticated data archival schemes that facilitate efficient data storage, search, and retrieval. ”

“ They make possible the discovery and the exact location of projectiles which have entered the body, and this is a great help in their extraction. These rays also reveal lesions of bones and of the internal organs and permit one to follow the progress of recovery from internal injuries. The use of the X-rays during the war saved the lives of many wounded men ”

“ In extreme cases the X-rays may cause complete destruction of the skin and even cancer, and before the properties of the X-rays were so well known as at present many operators lost hands, and some their lives, as a result of excessive exposure to the rays. At present, X-ray workers shield themselves, and, when necessary, the patient, with lead screens, that metal being practically opaque to the rays. ”

“ We affirm and recognize the importance of indigenous peoples’ religious and cultural sites and of providing access to and repatriation of their ceremonial objects and human remains in accordance with the ends of the Declaration. We commit ourselves to developing, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, fair, transparent and effective mechanisms for access to and repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains at the national and international levels. ”

“ States shall take effective measures, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, to ensure that indigenous sacred places, including burial sites, be preserved, respected and protected.
Article 14 Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons. ”

“ How far this can be done depends much on the feeling of the people; for while some tribes do not object to the removal of bones, especially if not of their own kinsfolk, in other districts it is hardly safe to risk the displeasure of the natives at the removal of the dead—a feeling which is not only due to affection or respect, but even more to terror of the vengeance of the ghosts whose relics have been disturbed. ”

“ Cultural institutions should reflect on and rethink their roles in relation to access. While the current policy landscape, lack of infrastructure and the serious budget cuts do not support openness, cultural institutions cannot lose sight of their essential role in building bridges to culture. Preservation must mean ensuring our cultural heritage is always easily accessible to anyone. ”