[andzt]

Why is this acceptable? Digging up bones to identify a man who has been dead for 400 years seems pretty disrespectful. What is the real motivation here?

When I die super famous and having made a profound impact on history, please let my body decompose in peace.

[pvaldes]

Being poor as a rat when he dies, Cervantes never knows that he'll became the most famous writer in the history of Spain. Their bones should and must have an accurate tomb to rest. The motivation is the same that lead to the americans to build the Lincoln tomb, a mix of culture and history preservation, national pride and personal homage.

Sadly we feel the dichotomy that a lot of spaniards, (brothers, sisters, fathers, uncles and mothers of somebody) murdered in the civil war and buried at night as dogs in roads and fields can NOT be recovered for this relatives (is logically forbidden to exhume a body without a order, an order delaying for more than 70 years). Absolute lack of interest and deliberate obstruction of the part of the autorities.

[Fastidious]

Why is it unacceptable? Isn't digging up bones for identification part of archeology? Motivation? Tribute perhaps, or national "closure?" After all, his remains true location are still unknown.

There is nothing disrespectful here, au contraire, it is about respect.