Introduction

The study of archaeological human remains can be argued to be the most important part of the discipline of archaeology (Roberts 2009a). Humans created the past, the past that archaeologists excavate, and without understanding how our ancestors lived and died it is not possible to understand the very structure of society. Therefore, without humans, we would have no past to excavate. Furthermore, in order to appreciate those people that created our heritage, we need to study their remains to gain knowledge about the impact of their environments on their lives, from birth to death. Of course, this works two ways; humans manipulated the environment (in its broadest sense) to their advantage, but the ‘environment' also forced populations to adapt to changing circumstances and this potentially had consequences for their health and ultimately how society functioned (Roberts 2010). For example, our ancestors moved to domesticate plants and animals several thousand years ago but they suffered the health consequences of that action (Cohen and Armelagos 1984; Cohen and Crane-Kramer 2007); however, that ‘move’ enabled a larger settled population to be supported. Another example is that of the Black Death in 14th century England. This infection claimed the lives of a very large proportion of the European population, which ultimately undermined the very fabric of society and how it functioned (Park 1993). It is also argued that archaeological human remains are, by their very nature, the remains of once living humans and thus deserve special care when they come to be excavated, analysed, curated and displayed.