However unlikely it may be, the risk is still there.London has been occupied as an urban space for almost 2,000 years with only a very short gap during the early Saxon period. It is now officially eradicated from the world, making the threat of contamination from bodies all the more serious. In 18th-century London about one in ten adult and one in three child deaths were from smallpox, so any excavation of burials from that period is bound to deal with victims.Can the virus survive for long periods? We simply do not know. Anthrax is rare in Britain, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. It is a spore-forming bacillus, which is reported to be able to survive for at least 50 to 100 years.Smallpox killed and scarred its victims for thousands of years. There is a risk of catching the diseases that caused the death of the body, only if any of the soft tissue survives; this is likely following more modern burials only where wood, or more probably lead, coffins have been used Two diseases are a risk - anthrax and smallpox. Diseases to watch include tetanus and Weil's disease.However, there are a number of extra dangers that are specifically associated with excavating human remains.

One reason for this is that Christian faith does not have strong views on the sanctity of the dead.Archaeologists are very conscious of the dangers involved in their work Many precautions are taken. Concerns about the ethics of excavating earlier generations of Britons, once you are beyond those who may have living relatives, are less clear-cut. It has been noted that "British attitudes to dead bodies are ambivalent, contradictory and volatile". However, it has to be said that this deals almost entirely with foreign cultures and religions. This authority comes in the form of a licence from the Secretary of State at the Home Office. Permission to disturb bodies buried in consecrated ground must come from the Church.There is now a large and detailed literature on the ethics of excavating, curating and displaying human remains.

It is now almost unknown in Britain for archaeologists to choose to excavate human remains. Too much archaeology is being destroyed; there are too few archaeologists and too little money to allow us to decide where to dig; we principally react to sites threatened with destruction. Under the 1857 Burial Act it is illegal to disinter a body without lawful authority. Through archaeological excavation, the remains of about 6,500 of those individuals have found their way into the care of the Museum of London. London is one of the most heavily excavated cities in the world. This is because of its great size and antiquity, and the continuing demand for development. We can add to this an unknown number dating back to the Roman foundation of the City in about AD50. You can have until then - but no longer - to decide whether you will give peace or war to your country." The hope in 1999 is that republican and unionist will choose peace..

IT HAS been estimated that, between 1600 and 1900, 6 million individuals were buried in London. The theory is that with London, Dublin and Washington breathing down their necks, both David Trimble and Gerry Adams would be forced into an accommodation.What Lloyd George in fact said in 1921 was: "We must know your answer by 10pm tonight. His reappearance would signify the reinvolvement of Bill Clinton. The scene is thus set for a re-creation of the talks that culminated on Good Friday, with exhausting all-night sessions following which politicians emerged into the spring sunlight, pale and drawn, to announce that an acceptable compromise has been hammered out.It was suggested yesterday that the former US Senator, George Mitchell, who chaired some of the last bout, might return to Belfast again. In Belfast, a decision has now been reached that only a highly intensive negotiation will sort things out, and that a political pressure-cooker is therefore under construction.Mo Mowlam has said that by 10 March, all will be ready to devolve real power to the assembly, and although this is officially a target date, it is fast turning into a deadline. Then again, some of the anti-accord Unionists have come to love the new assembly, and want to see the continuation of the assembly and the new status and salaries it has bestowed on them.As so often in the Middle East, and presently in Kosovo, situations such as this can drag on interminably, generally deteriorating as time passes unless matters are deliberately brought to a head.