Ethical Considerations Associated with the Display and Analysis of Juvenile Mummies from the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily

Abstract

The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo (Sicily) are a unique and culturally rich site utilized from the late sixteenth to mid-twentieth century. The Catacombs are home to the largest collection (n = 1,284) of partly or completely mummified remains in Europe, and the largest assemblage of juvenile mummies (n = 163) in Sicily. As a result, the site attracts thousands of visitors every year. This raises a number of ethical concerns in terms of the preservation, display, and scientific analysis of these mummies. This article will investigate the ethical challenges associated with the display and analysis of juvenile mummified individuals in the Capuchin Catacombs. Initially, ethical issues that arise when displaying mummified children at a visitor site will be explored. Subsequently, the value of adopting non-invasive techniques to answer highly focused, ethically grounded research questions will be addressed. Furthermore, this article will demonstrate the importance of transparent, open dialogue with religious groups and cultural heritage bodies in the study of juvenile mummies. Recommendations for best practice are provided at the end of this paper. These guidelines aim to ensure that juvenile mummies are displayed and analysed appropriately, whilst simultaneously respecting the beliefs and wishes of the living and deceased.

Keywords:

• Mummy studies
• display
• cultural heritage
• tourism
• ethics
• non-invasive investigation
• Sicily

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Capuchin Friars, the Superintendence for the Cultural and Environmental Heritage of Palermo, and the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity for their continued support and input into our research. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions and comments in the preparation of this paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 For further details pertaining to the mummification process in the Capuchin Catacombs, please refer to Piombino-Mascali, et al. (2010) and Panzer, et al. (2010; 2013).

2 Recent examples include the conferences “Human Remains. Ethics, Conservation, Display” (2019), Pompeii, Naples, and Turin, Italy; “Eticamente Sapiens. Dallo scavo alla valorizzazione dei resti umani” (2019), Bari, Italy; and the virtual webinar “Etica e resti umani in campo archeologico. Linee guida e codici deontologici tra ricerca, documentazione, tutela e valorizzazione” (2020), Rome, Italy.

3 The history of the site and visitor guidelines are available on the unofficial Palermo Catacombs website, though this is somewhat outdated and some features (e.g. videos) no longer work (Palermo Catacombs, n.d.).

4 In order to conduct scientific research on the Capuchin mummies, evaluation of proposals is carried out by the scientific curator (Dr Dario Piombino-Mascali), after which time, permission is requested to the Superintendence for the Cultural and Environmental Heritage of Palermo.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kirsty Squires

Kirsty Squires is an Associate Professor of Bioarchaeology at Staffordshire University, and is also a Research Associate of the Observatory for the Mummified Heritage of Sicily. She is interested in the archaeology of childhood in the past, ethics in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology, and the analysis and interpretation of cremated bone and mummified remains from archaeological and forensic contexts.

Dario Piombino-Mascali

Dario Piombino-Mascali is a Senior Researcher in Biological Anthropology with Vilnius University, and acts as a Scientific Curator of the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo. He is also a National Geographic Explorer and a Visiting Fellow of Cranfield University, as well as an Erasmus+ Professor at the University of Catania. He specializes in the bioarchaeology of mummified human remains.