Isn't it disrespectful to dig up burials? Why don't archaeologists just leave them in the ground?

Virtually all excavations of human burials in Britain (indeed, virtually all excavations) are carried out because the site is about to be destroyed. Most commonly this is the result of development – new homes, workplaces, roads, quarries and so on – or agricultural practices such as ploughing. If the burials were not excavated by archaeologists, they would be disturbed or destroyed in other ways. So, for example, the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, in Lincolnshire, which featured in the 2001 series, had been cut through when a new sewer pipe was laid a few years previously and was under continuing threat from ploughing.

Anyone who has ever seen the Team at work excavating human remains will know that the task is always carried out with the greatest respect. It would be difficult for us not to. After all, one of the reasons why most of the Team became involved in archaeology in the first place is because of the connection it enables us to feel with our ancestors. Home Office excavation licences also often impose requirements such as screening the excavation from public view (so that people don't stumble across it unexpectedly) and ensuring that 'the removal shall be effected with due care and attention to decency'.

It is not just with actual burials that such sensitivity is required – it is needed when excavating sites such as the Second World War US Air Force bomber at Reedham Marshes during the 1999 series in Norfolk, and the 2000 series excavation of a British Spitfire that had been shot down over Wierre-Effroy in northern France, in 1940. The agreement of the living relatives of the crews had to be sought before work could begin. The return of Spitfire pilot Paul Klipsch's brother to the site where his plane was shot down left a lump in the throat of everyone who witnessed it.