Vast scale of overseas human remains held in UK museums decried by MPs and experts | Colonialism

The large number of human remains held overseas by British museums is a shameful legacy of colonialism, with many objects preserved in a sacrilegious manner, MPs and archaeologists say.

An investigation by the Guardian found that British museums hold more than 263,000 human remains from around the world, including whole skeletons, preserved bodies, such as Egyptian mummies, skulls, bones, skin, teeth, nails, scalps and hair.

Responses to the Guardian’s Freedom of Information (FoI) requests revealed that 37,000 human remains are believed to have come from overseas, including thousands from former British colonies. The countries of origin of another 16,000 items are unknown.

Of the 28,914 human remains of non-European origin, 11,856 were identified as coming from Africa, 9,550 from Asia, 3,252 from Oceania, 2,276 from North America and 1,980 from South America.

The institution with the largest collection of non-European human remains is the Natural History Museum in London, with at least 11,215 pieces. It has the largest collections of remains in Asia and North and South America.

The University of Cambridge has the second largest collection, with at least 8,740 objects in its Duckworth laboratory, including the largest collection (6,223) of remains known to be from Africa.

Of the 241 museums, universities and councils that hold human remains, only 100 have disclosed an exact or estimated number of individuals represented in their collections, a total of around 79,334 people. The rest said they did not know, often because the remains of different bodies were mixed up or because of gaps in their records, such as because items were not documented.

Some institutions reported holding several boxes containing human remains, but did not know the number or provenance of the objects they contained.

Lord Paul Boateng said the findings exposed Britain’s museums and universities as “imperial mass graves where the bones of indigenous peoples taken from the British Empire in the past, with little or no respect for the spiritual sensibilities of its people, continue to be preserved to this day in circumstances that defy belief.”

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for African Reparations, said it was barbaric that looted human remains were being stored in boxes, with many museums not knowing who they belonged to.

“The fact that our country allowed such a large collection of human remains to be taken elsewhere and retain no trace of them indicates some kind of crime,” she added.

“The manner in which these remains are stored and displayed shows a complete lack of respect. They are denied dignity, even in death. This is a great shame for our nation.”

Experts said the findings contradicted a claim by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in its 2005 guidance that “the vast majority of human remains in British museums are of British origin, excavated under non-controversial conditions and within a clearly defined legal framework”.

Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archeology at Oxford University, said many museum collections include bodies and body parts looted from cemeteries and battlefields by British colonial fighters and officials, then brought to the United Kingdom as macabre trophies or for use in racial pseudoscience, such as eugenics.

Hicks, who analyzed FoI’s responses, said the results showed many museums were not following government guidelines for the respectful treatment of human remains. It advised institutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that human remains should be “stored separately and treated with respect in controlled and monitored environments”.

Museums should also have a policy to “compile and make public an inventory of their collections of human remains.”

The widespread failure to do so continued “the colonial violence involved in the taking and storing of human remains in museums, the treatment of human beings as objects, the disregard for identity and the appropriate treatment of the dead,” Hicks added.

Boateng, a former Labor minister, said the scale of collections of human remains held in the UK was “frankly sacrilegious and deeply spiritually offensive”.

He called on the DCMS to create a national register of human remains and issue mandatory guidelines for their timely return, wherever possible, to their countries and people of origin.

DCMS and Cambridge University declined to comment.

The Museums Association said significant numbers of foreign human remains in British collections were often acquired during the colonial period. Director Sharon Heal said she would welcome an update to guidance and legislation on the ethical treatment of human remains to help museums support the original communities.

The NHM website states that it is “committed to maintaining high standards of care and management of human remains in the collections.” A spokesperson added: “The museum has not refused to return any remains for which links have been established with the requesting communities and places of origin. »

The Duckworth Collections webpage says it follows government guidelines on the care of human remains.