Ancient History Cities of Vesuvius - 10 marker about ethical concerns

[Chadi]

How has the understanding of ethical issues related to the study and display of   human remains in Pompeii and Herculaneum changed over time?
In your answer, refer to sources B, C, and D (10 marks)

Human remains are one of the biggest ethical issues restricting archaeologists. The study of skeletal remains bears consequential ramifications.

Often, human remains are used to attract visitors to a specific area of a site. This is a very controversial technique as it involves the use of remains for commercial purposes. Source B is a photo of human remains laying in the boat sheds in Herculaneum, they are strategically planted in locations such as this one to drive up visitor numbers. Similarly, when Sarah Bisel studied 139 skeletons found at the beach in Herculaneum, they were left there for tourists to look at, over time they began to disintegrate and became overgrown with weeds. Not only were the bodies disrespected, but a highly valuable source of information as to what happened at the time of the eruption was lost. Not all remains that are studied and displayed are genuine ‘human remains’. Fiorelli developed a technique in which we can retrieve the exact shape and definition of the individual that was covered in ash. Plaster is inserted into the channels that lead to where the remains are, after the plaster dries, it is removed revealing the form that the being would have existed in. The remains in the Garden of Fugitives were identified this way. Mary Beard calls the laster casts a ‘product of a clever bit of archaeological ingenuity’, she also mentioned that ‘these bodies are always one of the highlights of any display of the discoveries from Pompeii’, demonstrating their success in replicating the accuracy of a human. This is one method that was used in order to prevent the exposure of actual human remains - in order to protect their honour and also to protect them physically. It was presumed that most inhabitants of Herculaneum had survived the eruption ‘until the discovery of skeletal evidence in 1982’ (Source C - Estelle Lazer). Among the evidence, it was found that there was no bias among who died to the eruption whether it be sex, age, health etc. Archaeology has changed, as Andrew Wallace Hadrill states ‘The logic that drives any modern excavation must be preservation, not the pursuit of a dream’.

Over time, the general goal of archaeology has shifted from the idea of ‘discovering’ to ‘preserving’. This means for the ethical concern aspect of archaeology, human remains will be reserved rather than left out and displayed and taken advantage of just to rot and eventually disintegrate.