Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation presents its basic approach to handling human remains in the collections of the National Museums in Berlin
Press release from 03/31/2015
The archaeological and ethnological collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin also contain human remains. These include bones, some of which have entered the collection in processed form (e.g. in the case of ethnological artefacts such as bone flutes) and some in unprocessed form (e.g. archaeological finds of human skeletal remains from necropolises), but also ethnological objects made of hair, human skin, etc.
With the acquisition of the Charité's so-called Luschan Collection, which comprises around 8,000 skeletons, skulls and other human remains, the State Museums' holdings of human remains have increased considerably and, for the first time, an anthropological collection is now in the care of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Since the end of 2011, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, which belongs to the SPK, has comprehensively conserved this collection, which the Charité had previously stored in a bunker under inadequate conditions. This revealed that a large part of the collection originated from ethnological collections. The exact origin of the holdings is to be clarified successively over the coming years. Knowing the provenances is a basic prerequisite for being able to decide on the further handling of such human remains that could originate from problematic contexts. Together with the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory (BGAEU), the museum is now researching the provenance of an initial part of the collection as part of a project.
On this occasion, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and its National Museums in Berlin have formulated the following basic positions for the handling of human remains in the collections, which serve as a guideline for the handling of both the Luschan collection and all other human remains in the museum's holdings. They are based on the recommendations for handling human remains in museums and collections issued by the German Museums Association.
- When working with the human remains in the collections, the staff are always aware that these are the remains of people who have been there. These collections therefore have a special status and must be treated with the utmost sensitivity and respect. They are stored in an appropriate and dignified manner, particularly with regard to the condition of the containers and rooms in which they are kept. Taking into account the requirements of preventive conservation (with regard to climate, light, pollutants, integrated pest management, packaging materials and methods), human remains should be stored in a separate and visually protected collection area, organised by individual. Documentation must be as good as possible and handled transparently. Any inclusion in a collection presentation requires special sensitivity in addition to a sound scientific state of research.
- Human remains still have an important place in collections today and are of great scientific value. They not only provide information about the past of people and cultures. They also form the basis for a wide range of research that can improve people's lives in the future. For example, human remains provide information about the development of diseases in the past, which can help to combat them better in the future. They provide insights into migration movements, eating habits of previous generations and how death and burial were dealt with in different parts of the world, which in turn can help to understand and answer questions of the present. They therefore continue to be an indispensable part of the collections, which not only form the basis for the museums' own research, but are also accessible to the scientific public of all disciplines for their projects.
- Human remains have entered the collections in various ways. In some cases, knowledge of how they once became part of a collection is incomplete or even completely lost. It is an important goal for the National Museums to successively clarify the origin of all human remains in the collections. Provenance research is therefore a particular priority before any further research (be it cultural and social anthropological, human biology or historical) on and with human remains. In the public presentation of human remains, research must go beyond the level of knowledge of the society of origin. The acquisition process must be clearly clarified in order to ensure that the human remains did not come into the museum's collection through a context of injustice. Not all acquisition processes in connection with human remains fulfil the ethical requirements that are applied today in the acquisition of collection items and are reflected, for example, in the ICOM Code of Ethics. If research into the provenance reveals that the acquisition took place under circumstances that are now considered unethical, this must be documented and a responsible decision made on how to handle the human remains in question.
- Dealing with the remains of the deceased is a central issue in all human cultures, although the values in the various cultures differ greatly in some cases. In the Christian Western world, the gravesites of recently deceased people are under special protection and are a place of remembrance for the deceased. However, this special legal and cultural status ends after a few decades. As a rule, gravesites are then closed. After this time, the remains of the deceased are treated as objects that can be bought and sold, for example. Accordingly, in Germany there are traditionally only a few reservations about the remains of people who have been dead for more than 100 years being kept in museums and being the subject of research. In some other cultures, there are fundamentally different values in this regard. In some cases, there are considerable reservations about human remains being kept outside of burial sites or consecrated places. There are also some objections to all or certain types of research on human remains. Views on the ethically correct handling of human remains are also changeable, and such changes can be observed worldwide. In this field of tension between different and changing views, the staff of the National Museums fulfil the task of preserving the collections entrusted to them and making them available to the public. In doing so, they endeavour to take into account and reconcile the different views as far as possible. If human remains belong to a particular society of origin, the values of this society in particular are taken into account in all considerations. As far as possible, contact is made with representatives of this society of origin in order to involve them in considerations regarding the handling of the remains. Experience has shown that expectations and wishes differ in this respect, so that an attempt should be made to find a solution that does justice to the individual case.
- In individual cases, the circumstances under which a person's remains came to the museum may deviate from today's ethical standards to such an extent that the continued storage of these remains in the museum appears questionable. It is also possible that the society of origin has lasting objections to the remains remaining in the museum. In such cases, all interests must be carefully weighed up. If necessary, the next steps should be discussed with the representatives of the society of origin. However, this presupposes that a clear assignment of the remains to such a society of origin is possible. A responsible decision must then be made - if necessary in co-operation with the representatives of the society of origin - on how to proceed and this must be documented in writing and using the Museum Plus museum documentation system. This may also consist of handing over the remains to the society of origin if the latter so wishes. In special individual cases, burial of the remains is also conceivable where the remains cannot be assigned to a society of origin.