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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that digging up dead bodies to fascinate over us wrong?

54 replies

TigersRoll · 14/04/2019 22:03

Or does it not matter if the dead people are Egyptian?

DH watches a program with his glasses on about a team digging up mummy’s from tombs in Egypt. They get all excited when they drag these bodies out, show skulls and other body parts to the camera and bang on about what s great find it is. AIBU to think this is wrong? These are not historical artefacts, they’re dead people!

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 14/04/2019 22:08

They're just bones though. There are no bodies and it's not like their relatives are alive to be upset by it.

I do get what you mean though...that it can appear to be in poor taste but having said that, we do learn a lot from the past.

Isadora2007 · 14/04/2019 22:09

Yabu but I get what you mean. But history is really interesting and we can learn so much from bodies. So I think it’s important they keep doing it as long as they’re respectful which I feel they are.

LizzieSiddal · 14/04/2019 22:13

I agree with you. I hate anything like that and can’t watch them. Those “bones” are somebodies mother/daughter/son/ etc.
They don’t seen to be very respectful at all and it makes me angry.

Pluginwall · 14/04/2019 22:14

I felt like this when I went to the museum in Cairo. I felt gawping at all the mummies in cases was disrespectful.

Pluginwall · 14/04/2019 22:17

Another pet hate is the photos of the murder victims shown for “enjoyment” in places like the Jack the Ripper Museum in London.

WorraLiberty · 14/04/2019 22:19

They're not "bones" they're bones and they're not bodies either.

The mothers/daughters/sons etc will be long gone too.

I don't think it's anything to get emotional about 5000 years later.

LizzieSiddal · 14/04/2019 22:20

Yes Plug, I hate all that glamorisation of murder victims too.

FrancesFryer · 14/04/2019 22:24

Why does it matter if he has his glasses on?

WorraLiberty · 14/04/2019 22:25

Frances I must admit I did wonder that too! Grin

Is it a phrase I haven't heard of OP?

'Watches with his glasses on', might mean avidly watching or something?

vampirethriller · 14/04/2019 22:25

YANBU and I've got a degree in archaeology. I hated digging people up. It gave me horrible dreams for a long time.

barryfromclareisfit · 14/04/2019 22:27

Dig ‘em up, I say. Find out what you can and pop ‘em back in the ground with an explanatory note or some such.

AllTheWhoresOfMalta · 14/04/2019 22:28

The photos of JtRs victims I can get on board with. Find JtR very interesting and studied it for my Masters in some detail but I was in Bishopsgate a few weeks ago and saw a “Jack the Ripper Ghost Tour Bus” with a picture of one of the (dead) girls on and thought “yikes”.

Can’t get too upset over 5000 yr old Mummies though.

Ribbonsonabox · 14/04/2019 22:28

They ARE historical artifacts and they are dead bodies. We do need to learn about the past. Those bodies are from so so long ago that no one living now is going to have emotional attachment to them or be personally hurt by thier excavation. They do need to be treated with respect but I dont think that being dug up and examined is disrespectful. I'd be happy to have my body dug up and examined if it were ti help the progress of humanity and give everyone a greater understanding of the past. It's not like they are just doing it for a laugh and then tossing the bones in the bin or something! These artifacts are treated with reverence and considered incredibly important.

Amongstthetallgrass · 14/04/2019 22:28

I’ve been to Cairo museum and it was breathing taking. Thousands of years worth of amazing history. Just staggering. I’d love to go back there again but it’s not safe to travel.

Ribbonsonabox · 14/04/2019 22:30

And if I were a murder victim I'd certainly want to be dug up and investigated because I'd want them to catch my killer and I'd want people to know widely who it was!

Persimmonn · 14/04/2019 22:34

I can understand what you mean and I feel sad when I see the mummies in our local museums. They’re not “resting in peace” in the way they themselves or their loved ones would have wanted them to, but I suppose that the price they’ve paid for lavishing themselves in golden sarcophaguses and fancy tombs. I bet the bones of the poor folk from that era of time have turned to dust.

Erythronium · 14/04/2019 22:35

I had a weird moment at the British Museum once, which is full of dead people from all ages, where I looked around me and thought "these archeologists are graverobbers". It's another way of looking at it I suppose.

Order654 · 14/04/2019 22:36

They are dead, they don’t care.

I don’t see a problem with it.

HumberElla · 14/04/2019 22:37

I wonder if it’s the fact that are so old that makes it ‘ok’, in which case how old is old enough to be an exhibit? Or if it’s that any remains in an Egyptian tomb is automatically now seen as ‘treasure’ rather than a person who has died, been mourned and respectfully buried.

I know of an exhumation recently done (work related) of some fairly old bodies with relatives long gone and beyond record. They were treated with the utmost care and respect, covered from public view and reburied. No comparison.

Longdistance · 14/04/2019 22:40

I hated the British Museum for all the sarcophagus’. ‘Here is a coffin, here’s another one, and another. Don’t worry we’ve taken the body out, it was just some random person.’ Nice 🙄

BlueCornishPixie · 14/04/2019 22:40

They are just bones though. They're not people anymore and their relatives have all long gone.

Tbh I am more than happy for someone to dig me up when I'm a skeleton. I'd love it. It will be the most fascinating someone will ever find me!

Lockheart · 14/04/2019 22:44

I used to work in a room where there were several iron age skeletons laid out from a recent excavation.

I never heard any complaints from them Wink despite the fact I'd be chatting complete drivel to them all day. I used to tell them what was happening in the news.

They're both people and historical objects.

In the UK now the excavation and storage of archaeological human remains is highly regulated. I do not know the rules in Egypt though.

But for a poor country who's economy is built hugely on the tourism and fame that these mummies bring, well I can see why they're keen to dig more up all the time.

64sNewName · 14/04/2019 22:47

I have worked on a dig in the UK where we dug up early Christian bones. I was a student volunteer.

The bones were reinterred later, after being studied. In my experience archaeologists generally treat bones with respect, and genuinely appreciate what they learn from them. I’d have no problem with being dug up and earnestly analysed and discussed hundreds of years from now - in fact I find the idea rather cheering tbh. People pondering my femur while they have a tea break down the hall from the lab, etc. sounds better than just being ignored like so many forgotten burials in derelict burial grounds Smile

That said, it’s personal and I can totally see why it does bother some people. I think opinions on this are often intertwined with broader fear and anxiety around death though.

HumberElla · 14/04/2019 22:49

Lockheart - I love the thought of you telling the Iron Age people the day’s news!

ChopinIn10Minuets · 14/04/2019 22:52

I must admit I did feel a bit weird about the case of the King in the Car Park. Part of me did wonder how ethical it was to be poking around his remains even if it was for identification purposes, and even if they did give him a proper send-off at the end of it.