Defining a Resource: the Ossuary at St Peters Church, Barton

In 2007 English Heritage created a modern-day ossuary at St Peters, Barton on Humber, to house the extensive human remains assemblage excavated from the site. This paper will reflect on this most particular of resources 15 years on from its inception. In reviewing the ways in which the assemblage has been accessed and used, I will consider how the ossuary has, (and has not), met our expectations as a repository for the human remains. I will
question those expectations, and consider what the term ‘resource’ means for a human remains assemblage.
In 2019 English Heritage began to explore our role as curators of the Barton assemblage: who do we hold the resource for and who is it relevant to? I will use this paper to articulate some of that thinking and suggestions on how we might open-up conversation around, and find resonance in, the deceased population of the town across a millennium.
Kevin Booth has been Senior Curator with English Heritage since 2005. Kevin led the project to create the ossuary and has curated the resource since it opened in 2007. Barton is one of 47 properties with collection displays and stores within the North Territory, covering the Neolithic to the Cold War across a third of a million objects.
Content warning: The Powerpoint for this paper will include images of human remains.