Why and how Archaeologists dig up the Dead

On Rob Hedge's 'The Incurable Archaeologist' blog is a text which has direct relevance to the gruesome spectacle of three metal detectorists and a dealer hacking their way through the battle dead of eastern Europe; 'In Memoriam: SK(698)' (January 17, 2016) which is well worth reading.

I’m reminded that burial is simply one act in a mourning process, in which much of the significant actions take place off-stage. But the act of burial is one that is bound up with a sense of place. My little corner once became the centre of someone’s world, a locus of sorrow and lament. I don’t lie awake seeing skulls. But I do see the mourners. And I feel a duty of care, on their behalf.[...] For someone, at sometime, that quiet corner became a special and terrible place.

It is a pleasure to be able to write more positively of one of Mr Hedge's comments on metal detecting, I was not too kind about some earlier comments he'd made - or what he apparently did not want to come out and say straight, so I am glad to see we are on the same side of the fence here at least.