These monuments are the remains of communities that are, in a biological and cultural sense, the ancestors of many of the people who live in these landscapes today.

The connection between the ancient and the modern is not purely abstract; it is physically present in the landscape.

The discovery of evidence for complex funerary practices — including practices that might seem strange or disturbing from a modern perspective — at sites like Loch Borralie invites a kind of careful engagement with how the ancient past of a living landscape is understood and presented.

The people whose remains are at the center of the discovery deserve to be treated with the respect owed to actual human beings rather than as curiosities or spectacles.