It even bothers me a little to see mummies which are several thousand years old being treated cavalierly.
Not opposed to studying them, but the passage of time does not change the fact that their remains should be treated respectfully.
I am a volunteer on the above project at Auldhame and I can assure you that the first priorty when dealing with these remains is respect. I can understand sentiment but as a "local" from the area the sense of history and knowledge gained is fantastic. Very little is known about St Baldred and the history of this area. When the skeletons are removed they will be sent for analysis and will be able to establish ages cause of death etc. The skeletons will then be returned and reburied on site or in Holy ground. It is also fair to say that there was not a lot of respect for the bodies after burial anyway as the mjority of graves are cross cut and this was a common theme at this stage of history, The majority of the work is identifying disarticulated bone form the skeleton you are working on due to this crosscutting !!!! see
http://www.spoilheap.co.uk/ states
At the Norman Conquest (1066 onwards), clearance of large areas of towns for building of castles often involved covering Saxon graveyards and demolition of churches. The Farmer's Avenue cemetery in Norwich was partially disturbed by the Castle ditches. At Blackgate, Newcastle, a cemetery was partially buried beneath the castle motte. At Raunds, a new church was built and there was clearance of the cemetery, including smashing of stone coffins and memorials, and reburial of bodies in charnel pits.
and also
In the 12th century there was a change in belief from the Day of Judgement to Purgatory, and this seems to have affected the way in which bodies were treated. There tends to be less respect for older graves in the later medieval period, although this could also have occurred due to the demand for space and the lack of any grave markers. At Whithorn, the lack of space was compensated for by several reorganisations of the churchyard, with levelling occurring perhaps once every 20-30 years.