burial

burial, the disposal of human remains by depositing in the earth, a grave, or a tomb, by consigning to the water, or by exposing to the elements or to carrion-consuming animals. Geography, religion, and the social system all influence burial practices. Climate and topography determine whether the body is buried under the ground, placed in water, burned, or exposed to the air. Religious and social attitudes determine how elaborate the burial should be; rank, for example, may determine whether the body is placed in the shallow trench of a simple burial or in an underground chamber of impressive dimensions and construction.

Inhumation

Burial in the ground by hollowing out a trench in the earth for the body or covering it with rocks or dirt dates back at least to the Middle Paleolithic Period. Grave burial, or inhumation, may be simple or elaborate. Some Eskimo people cover the corpse with a pile of stones or, if stones are not available, with a small ice igloo. The Old Norse people built barrows that sometimes reached enormous heights. In eastern North America, large burial mounds were characteristic of Indian cultures from 1000 bce to 700 ce.

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Graves may be mere shallow pits, or they may be intricate and beautifully fashioned subterranean palaces sunk deep into the earth and spacious enough to accommodate vast numbers of persons. Excavations of the royal graves of Ur (dating back to about 3000 bce) revealed, in an inner chamber of one, the body of a ruler with a few intimate attendants and, in surrounding chambers, servants, ministers, dancing girls, charioteers with vehicles and animals, and other persons who had been slain to provide service in death. Recent discoveries in Peru revealed that the Paraca burial chambers, hewn out of solid rock 18 feet (5 metres) below the surface of the ground, were large enough to accommodate as many as 400 corpses with all the belongings that it was thought they would need in the afterworld. Customarily, however, graves have been planned for the burial of individuals.

Caves, a natural refuge of humans, have also been used for the dead. The ancient Hebrews used natural single-chamber caves and hewed oblong recesses lengthwise into the walls to accommodate the dead, a custom that encouraged the building of mausoleums. At first regarded as sacred places, they came to be considered unclean. By the time of Jesus Christ they were coated with lime so that they could be recognized and avoided—the literal origin of the metaphoric “whited sepulchres.” Among many people, however, sepulchral caves continued to be regarded as sacred and eventually became places of worship. Among them are thousands of rock temples in western India and in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), some of which received elaborate architectural and sculptural treatment. Both caves and earth graves encouraged the development of other burial practices: the use of coffins and rich graveclothes and burial goods.

Even the positioning of the body came to acquire significance, generally of a religious nature. Customarily, the body is placed in an extended position, in or out of a coffin, as if in sleep. Bodies of Muslims are laid on their right side and facing Mecca. Those of Buddhists are laid with the head to the north. The bodies of ancient Egyptians were placed to face toward the west, perhaps as an indication of the importance of the land of the dead. Not all groups prefer the sleeping position. Early cultures often buried their dead in a crouching or squatting position. In Babylon and Sumer, the sleeping position was reserved for the more exalted; servants killed and buried with their rulers were placed in a crouching position so that they would be ready to serve at royal command. Many Native Americans buried their dead in a fetal position, sometimes in a basket or clay urn, with knees under the chin and the body neatly tied into a death bundle. Upright burial has been favoured by other people, particularly for warriors.

Western burials have become fairly standardized. In the 21st century the dead are interred in cloth-lined and simply ornamented coffins called caskets, and after ceremonies of eulogy and farewell the casket is lowered into a rectangular hole, which is then filled up with earth. Beginning in the 19th century, burials increasingly took place in cemeteries, which are special areas set aside as sites for graves. See cemetery; see also cremation.

Water burial

The association between water and immortality is reflected in the myths of many cultures, myths that often centre on a god-hero who sails away from his people in death with the promise to return again. The bodies of chiefs and heroes, therefore, have often been set adrift on rivers and oceans in death ships. Among the Norse, even those who were interred were sometimes given such a bier—a custom that was widespread from Iceland to England during the 7th and 8th centuries ce. Perhaps the most famous of such ship burials that have been excavated was that at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. In one mound, archaeologists found the remains of a wooden boat for 38 rowers, 85 feet (26 metres) long, that had been dragged a half mile (about 1 km) from the river and lowered into the ground.

Water burials have been common in other cultures. In the Pacific Islands it was customary to place the dead in a canoe and launch that on the water. Not all water burial involves a ship or raft, however. In the Solomon Islands, bodies have simply been laid on a reef to be eaten by sharks; in other places they have been wrapped and weighted with stones. In Western cultures, water burial is still employed on occasion when people die during a sea voyage. Scattering ashes on water is widely practiced, especially in Asia; in Laos, for example, the ashes of the cremated are often strewn at sea. In India a bone-throwing ceremony concludes the Hindu death observances. Within a year after death the remains are taken to the Ganges River and thrown into the sacred water; if it is not possible to do that, they are thrown into another river or stream with the hope that they will eventually make their way to the Ganges.

Exposure

Placing the body where it may be eaten by scavenging birds and animals or weathered to its essential elements has been held by many groups to be the most desirable form of disposal for spiritual as well as material reasons. The Zoroastrians have been perhaps the most widely known practitioners of this type of burial, which developed out of the belief that the corpse is so unclean that to inter or cremate it would contaminate the “pure elements” of earth, fire, and water. Since the 6th century bce it has been their custom to leave bodies on mountains or hills at a distance from the community. In Mumbai the Parsis (as the Indian descendants of the Persian refugees are called) maintain “towers of silence,” high circular structures. The dead are carried to them, and funeral servants place them on stone beds surrounding a central pit. After the hovering vultures have stripped the flesh from the bones—usually within a few hours—the bones are gathered and dropped into the central pit.

A number of people who expose the dead use trees and platforms (tree burial). Among them are the Bali Aga people of Bali, the Naga people of India, the Aborigines of central Australia, and the Sioux and other Native American groups. Commonly, the Sioux robed the dead in their best clothing, sewed them into a deerskin or buffalo shroud, and carried them to a platform about 8 feet (2.5 metres) high. Various possessions and gifts were placed on the scaffold, and the body was allowed to remain there for a year; at the end of that time it was taken down and given an earth burial.

Second burial

Among many peoples, a period of waiting occurs between the first burial and a second burial that often coincides with the duration of decomposition. The origin of this practice is considered to be the different concept of death held by these peoples. In such societies, death is held to involve a slow change, a passage from the visible society of the living to the invisible one of the dead. During the period of decomposition, the corpse is sometimes treated as if it were alive, provided with food and drink and surrounded by company. Some groups on the island of Borneo, for example, attach mystical importance to the disintegration of the body, sometimes collecting and carefully disposing of the liquids produced by decomposition.