Archaeologists begin excavating 3,000 skeletons from Bedlam

Bring up your dead! Archaeologists begin excavating 3,000 skeletons
from Bedlam Hospital cemetery disturbed by London builders -
including tragic mother and child who died together

Work underway to excavate remains from burial site disturbed
by Crossrail
About 3,000 skeletons are now to be excavated from Bedlam burial ground
Mother and her child buried side-by-side are among remains to be removed
Cemetery discovered by workers at site for new Liverpool Street rail station
60 archaeologists will work shifts to unearth remains over next four weeks
Crossrail project has found more than 10,000 artefacts at 40 London sites
www.dailymail.co.uk... srail-construction.html

How do you feel about moving the dead to make way for the living.

a reply to: Spider879

I'd have to say, considering these people probably died in a wholey unceremonious fashion...

& were likely discarded, rather than buried out of concern...



Maybe a new resting place would be better for them anyways.

a reply to: Spider879

From a religious perspective i would say it is bad. From personal perspective, if we keep burying people, this will become a planet of mass graves. We should either cremate the dead, cover them in fungus spores to give back to the planet with our decomposing flesh. An out of the box solution. We use explosives to collapse the ground under the cemetery. so the whole cemetery will just drop a good 30-40 feet underground and we have the space to build the railway or w/e.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Good point Charlies.

a reply to: Spider879

Wow they don't even worry about stirring up diseases I guess?!?

Bedlam burial ground was established in 1569 to help parishes cope with overcrowding during outbreaks of the plague and other epidemics. As well as being used to bury those who were struck down with disease.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

originally posted by: Heruactic
a reply to: Spider879

From a religious perspective i would say it is bad. From personal perspective, if we keep burying people, this will become a planet of mass graves. We should either cremate the dead, cover them in fungus spores to give back to the planet with our decomposing flesh. An out of the box solution. We use explosives to collapse the ground under the cemetery. so the whole cemetery will just drop a good 30-40 feet underground and we have the space to build the railway or w/e.

Complex issues here, some folks believe in not only a spiritual resurrection but a physical one also, where the body is important ,now I am no way religious but i'd be up set if someone dug-up the graves of my immediate fore-bearers to build a mall, i mean dead is dead so why should I feel this way.

a reply to: Spider879

Bedlam??!? The infamous mad house? This is like a horror movie come to life!

They were treated like scientific specimens in life, and now in death, too...

originally posted by: gmoneystunt
a reply to: Spider879

Wow they don't even worry about stirring up diseases I guess?!?

Bedlam burial ground was established in 1569 to help parishes cope with overcrowding during outbreaks of the plague and other epidemics. As well as being used to bury those who were struck down with disease.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

I donno can disease survive that long??

a reply to: Spider879

Its hard to tell all of the diseases they had especially when they didn't even get a proper burial to begin with. Nowadays they incinerate bodies like cows with mad cow disease before burial. Better to be safe than sorry.

a reply to: Spider879

How do you feel about moving the dead to make way for the living.

I heartily approve. It is Nature's way.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: Spider879

How do you feel about moving the dead to make way for the living.

I heartily approve. It is Nature's way.

I guess, but it's easier to accept if you are culturally attuned to cremation than burial.

a reply to: Spider879

Do you think I'm 'culturally attuned to cremation', Spider?

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: Spider879

Do you think I'm 'culturally attuned to cremation', Spider?

I donno, are you?? .. I was using the example of cremation in a general way not directly at you.

I'm not religious, but I still have some mixed feelings when it comes to moving and reburying the dead, particularly if it's done just to "make way for the living". In this case, however, I have no issues with it. This site (and, as noted by the article, the Roman site beneath it) does hold some archaeological and scientific value. Also, they are to be reburied on consecrated ground, which is probably more consideration than they were given when they were initially buried, considering, per the article, that those buried there were "London's poor, religious non-conformist" and inmates of the asylum.

I say dig them up. I believe in reincarnation and that a portion of our multidimensional selves lingers for a short time before reincarnating again.

There is considerable historical data that suggests some souls have problems moving on without the closure of a funeral or other death rituals.

As far as a centuries old graveyard is concerned, I bet they've all moved on long ago.

I actually saw in a very vivid vision, my own funeral from the civil war era. I saw my widow grieving. I saw my ghost standing a few yards away from my coffin. The most striking part was the fact that I could feel my widow's emotions but I was completely at peace, stoic even.

That bizarre event was so real that it changed my entire belief system. Prior to it, reincarnation was only a sensible possibility. I am now certain beyond any doubt that I've lived before thus I believe we all have.

a reply to: Spider879

Done all the time in Us....if in say 100 years or so....no more burials or visitors...they get removed to other locations for reburial... and sites then become apartments, homes, businesses...and city Parks.....quite normal

As an archaeologist who has done this sort of salvage work, I find it fascinating to think about how much can be learned from such studies. While I would never advocate just digging into graves out of curiosity, these graves have already been disturbed so something must be done.
As a relative of many people whose bones have been moved due to construction issues---the method of removal is important to me. I believe that archaeologists should be involved in any removal of human remains. In the US many cemetery removals are done with backhoes. That seems very disrespectful to me.
As for digging up disease---I don't think there has ever been a confirmed case of disease carried by a skeleton. The disease issues come from soft tissues, not bones, so if the remains are completely skeletonized, the disease issue is moot.

a reply to: Spider879

And this is in the "Ancient and Lost Civilisations" forum because... ??

originally posted by: ReturnofTheSonOfNothing
a reply to: Spider879

And this is in the "Ancient and Lost Civilisations" forum because... ??

No where else to put it and some of the burials go back to the Roman era??

a reply to: Spider879

It's kind of a poor fit wherever you put it isn't it. I would have thought "Science and Technology" would be closer though.. Maybe they need a new forum, or need to rename an existing one..

Really though, Bedlam is not representative of either an Ancient or a Lost civilization.