King Arthur Pendragon loses human remains legal battle

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-14630468

A druid who went to the High Court to try to stop researchers examining ancient human remains found at Stonehenge has failed in his legal bid.

King Arthur Pendragon wanted the remains found in 2008 to be reburied immediately.

He was fighting a Ministry of Justice decision allowing scientists at Sheffield University to analyse the samples for five more years.

His bid was rejected at a High Court hearing in London.

[stellanoir]

1. sheesh

These days druids don't get any respect.

[eShirl]

5. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...

but their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqeq12TdW58

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Good - there's no reason to pander to self-invented druids with no more connection to the bones

than any Briton. If they're 5000 years old, we can be pretty sure they were nothing to do with the ancient druids (who were about 2000 years ago), let alone the modern ones.

[baldguy]

3. Funny, he doesn't look druish.

[Warpy]

4. "King Arthur Pendragon?"

Gee, megalomania much, buddy?

I don't blame people for seeking out what little they can find about pre Christian religion and culture. After all, Christianity's been a bust since it got taken over by the legalists and knuckleheads, although pockets of liberal Christians who actually read the book are still plugging away at trying to use it to make this a better world.

However, giving oneself such an exalted name and title does open one to a great deal of ridicule, all richly deserved.

The bones will be reinterred when they've given up all the secrets modern medical equipment can ferret out of them.

His highness is likely to be in for a few surprises. I do hope the cognitive dissonance isn't too painful.

[d_r]

7. you should see his sister,

Morgan Le Fey. Hottie.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. How about the exalted 'Bishop' Eddie Long?

Or Ratsy's actual title: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God.

Fairly exalted crapola that.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. King, huh?

I didn't vote for ye!

[struggle4progress]

9. ... While King Arthur was calling for a “day of action” to protest this decision, another group,

Pagans For Archaeology, were pleased that scientific exploration of the remains will continue uninterrupted ...
Stonehenge Remains, Maetreum of Cybele, and other Pagan News of Note
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/08/stonehenge-remains-maetreum-of-cybele-and-other-pagan-news-of-note.html

[dmallind]

11. The Great Druid Schism of 2011!!

Time for the PFA denomination to move their High Priest to Avignon.

[struggle4progress]

13. King Arthur Protesting for the return of our Ancestors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIX7pMhN7OI

[struggle4progress]

10. ... Aubrey Hole 7, first excavated in 1920, was re-excavated in 1935 by William Young and

Robert Newall, for disposal of the ancient cremated human bone recovered in extensive excavations in the 1920s. The third excavation of this pit, directed in August by Mike Parker Pearson, Mike Pitts and Julian Richards for the Stonehenge Riverside Project (see feature, Sep/Oct), was designed primarily to retrieve this bone, thought to include remains from some 50 burials. The material covered the pit bottom in an undifferentiated mass, but the bone itself (estimated to weigh 25–30kg) is in excellent condition, and promises to reveal much about the people represented. In the course of excavation, a tumour pathology was noted, and features that will help identify the minimum number of people, and sex and age ...
Aubrey Hole find could change Stonehenge's meaning
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba103/news.shtml



... Parker Pearson and his colleagues found evidence of earlier cremation burials, by looking at remains excavated in the 1950s and kept at the nearby Salisbury Museum. The remains were radiocarbon-dated for the first time, using a procedure that focuses on minerals left behind after cremation ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24873901/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/did-stonehenge-start-out-royal-cemetery/

[struggle4progress]

12. ... Whilst they were all standing around, Merlin came unto them and said: 'Now, my men, try what ye

can do to fetch me down these stones! Then may ye know whether strength avail more than skill, or skill than strength.' Thereupon at his bidding they all with one accord set to work with all manner devices, and did their utmost to fetch down the Dance. Some rigged up huge hawsers, some set to with ropes, some planted scaling ladders, all eager to get done with the work, yet natheless was none of them never a whit the forwarder. And when they were all weary and spent, Merlin burst out on laughing and put together his own engines. At last, when he had set in place everything whatsoever that was needed, he laid the stones down so lightly as none would believe, and when he had laid them down, bade carry them to the ships and place them inboard, and on this wise did they again set sail and returned unto Britain with joy, presently with a fair wind making land, and fetching the stones to their burial-place ready to set up. When this was reported unto Aurelius, he sent messengers throughout the countries of Britain, bidding summon clergy and laity, and enjoining them when summoned to assemble at the Mount of Ambrius with rejoicing and honour to set up the stones again round the foresaid burial-place. Accordingly, in obedience to the edict, came pontiffs and abbots and folk of every single order or condition that were his subjects, and when all were met together on the day appointed, Ambrosius set the crown upon his own head and celebrated the 'Whitsuntide festival right royally, giving up the three following days running to the holiday ... And when he had settled these and other matters in his realm, he bade Merlin set up the stones that he had brought from Ireland around the burial-place. Merlin accordingly obeyed his ordinance, and set them up about the compass of the burial-ground in such wise as they had stood upon Mount Killaraus in Ireland, and proved yet once again how skill surpasseth strength ...

Histories of the Kings of Britain
Geoffrey of Monmouth <1136>
BOOK VIII
CHAPTER XII
tr. by Sebastian Evans <1904>
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/gem/gem09.htm#page_189

[ashling]

14. Arthur Rex

http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dims3/BLOG/resize/590x393%5E/crop/590x393/

A druid "battle chieftain" has lost the latest round of a fight to force scientists to return ancient "royal" remains to their original resting place at Stonehenge.

The Rev King Arthur Uther Pendragon, who styles himself the Battle Chieftain of the Council of British Druid Orders and Titular Head and Chosen Chief of the Loyal Arthurian Warband Druid order, failed to persuade the High Court to intervene in the row.
King Arthur said outside court that the remains had originally been laid in a circle around the ancient Stonehenge stones - which are thought to be around 5,000 years old - and druids considered them the "guardians" of the site.

He said the remains had been removed in the 1920s and examined by archaeologists then returned to a burial pit at the Stonehenge site, which is near Salisbury. King Arthur told the judge that it was a matter of "common decency" as well as burial law that exhumed remains were returned to their original resting place

http://news.aol.co.uk/weird-news/story/king-arthur-loses-stonehenge-case/1908061/