The day I gave 364 people a decent burial
SIR – Robert Ian Williams (Letter, December 23) asks what provision the Church makes for the respectful treatment of the remains of Catholics subjected to archaeological digs. Perhaps I may be able to help.
In Britain it is difficult to liaise with archaeological trusts as there is no established protocol.
As a member of Dyfed Archaeological Trust, I follow its digs. When excavating St John’s Dominican Priory in Carmarthen they found 125 bodies; and at the Franciscan Church (perhaps the largest in Britain), they found 239, 105 of them from within the chancel. Not only were the bodies pre-Reformation, but they had, I believe, died before 1435. The bodies were medically examined in Cardiff (one skull was found to have been trepanned) and returned for burial.
