British archaeologists are protesting a government policy requiring the reburial of human remains within two years of excavation.

A letter to Britain’s Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, which was reprinted in the Guardian , from 40 of the country’s archaeologists denounced a new interpretation of an 150-year-old law requiring researchers to rebury all human remains within two years of excavation. “The current licence conditions are impeding scientific research, preventing new discoveries from entering museums, and are not in the public interest,” the authors write.

Previously, Britain’s Home Office allowed researchers to store human remains in museums, provided they were of historical interest and sufficiently old. However in 2008, the Department of Justice determined that an 1857 law that had been previously applied only to more recently buried bodies also held for older, archaeological excavations.

According to the Guardian the Ministry of Justice told archaologists that the new interpretation was only temporary, while it worked out a new policy. But seeing no progress, archaeologists went public.

In a statement, the Department of Justice said “archaeologists are welcome to apply to extend the time limit for reburial. A number have already done so and no such applications have been refused,” according to Reuters.

That won’t do, says Duncan Sayer an archaeologist at the University of Central Lancashire. “The problem is we can’t apply for licenses forever. There’s no security.” It will be impossible to deposit remains in a museum for further study using new techniques, and funding agencies may be hesitant to support research based on access to materials that could be reburied if a renewal application is declined.

Serial renewals are “hardly a satisfactory solution,” says Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield, who has already had to apply for an extension to continue to work on cremated remains from Stonehenge.

“If we have to we will challenge this in law because I don’t think they have a leg to stand on, but I’m confident it’s not going to come to that. I’m sure they will see the folly of this strategy,” he adds.