Herefordshire has a collection of the remains of “62 to 70 individuals”, a bizarre information request has revealed.
The freedom of information request, from an unnamed source, asked Herefordshire Council what human remains were among the holdings of its collections and museums.
The figure given includes whole and partial skeletons, whole bones and fragments, and whole and partial skulls – though not skin, hair, scalps, nails, other body parts, mummified remains, or artefacts made from them, the council said.
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“All material originates from archaeological excavation in the UK,” it added.
The information request appeared to be trying to establish whether the council kept any human remains from other countries.
The council has around 100,000 objects in its collection in all, ranging from geological and archaeological items to art, textiles and furniture.
Archaeological surveys are often required as a condition of new developments at sensitive spots in the county, such as the recently approved heat pump building for near the County Hospital in Hereford, in an area thought to include part of a lost mediaeval priory.
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