The working life of Museum of London

Jelena Bekvalac, Research Osteologist at the Museum of London, writes:

“The forthcoming Skeletons exhibition to be held at Wellcome from July to September will be the culmination of many months of planning and collaboration between the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology at the Museum of London and the Wellcome Collection. The premise of the exhibition is to give an insight as to what is buried beneath the streets of London and what valuable information can be learnt from analysing the skeletal remains of past inhabitants of London.

London has throughout its long history been developed and rebuilt causing destruction and disturbance of its material history. In the last thirty years or so, such building developments have precipitated archaeological investigations. During these excavations in many instances skeletal human remains are revealed, some of which have been retained for their scientific research value.

The skeletons in the exhibition are all from such developments that have taken place and have been retained as part of the research collection that is curated and archived at the museum. They cannot be returned to their original cemeteries for reburial, as those sites have been built upon. With a very few exceptions the remains are anonymous. Where we do know the names of a few of them who died in the 18th and 19th centuries it has proved impossible to trace any living descendants. The skeletal remains are treated with great respect and the idea of the exhibition is not that it is to see the skeletons of these people as curiosities but as significant repositories of information that can assist many fields of research including that of modern day medics and clinicians.”