Managing Human Skeletal Remains in Nigerian Museum Collections: Ethical and Professional Guidelines

Human skeletal remains held in Nigerian museum and university collections present a distinctive set of ethical, professional, and legal challenges that have received insufficient systematic attention from heritage management practitioners and institutions. This study develops practical ethical and professional guidelines for the management of human skeletal remains in Nigerian collections, grounded in a comprehensive review of the holdings and current practices at twelve museums and four university archaeology departments. A structured audit of each institution's human remains collection assessed cataloguing status, storage conditions, access protocols, community consultation history, and existing institutional policies. Findings indicate that most institutions lack formal human remains policies, with management decisions made on an ad hoc basis by individual curators or department heads. Community consultation prior to research use of human remains is rarely practiced, reflecting a significant divergence from international standards established by ICOM and the World Archaeological Congress. Several collections include skeletal material with uncertain provenance, including potential victims of colonial violence and the transatlantic slave trade, whose descendants have legitimate interests in consultative decision-making about repatriation or memorialization. The guidelines developed by this study address collection documentation, storage standards, research access protocols, community engagement procedures, and a decision-making framework for responding to repatriation requests. The study recommends their adoption as a national professional standard by the Archaeological Association of Nigeria and the Museum Association of Nigeria. Keywords: human skeletal remains, museum ethics, repatriation, Nigerian collections, heritage management.