Ten extraordinary burial techniques

People who wish to have their ashes scattered, are entitled to a Christian funeral the Vatican has said. Although burial is preferred by the Roman Catholic Church, because of the belief in the resurrection of the body, cremation is now acceptable in certain circumstances. Ruth Gledhill has written a great analysis of the Vatican's statement to accompany the story by Richard Owen of The Times in Rome.

Here are some extraordinary ways the dead have been dealt with through the ages.

Tree top burial: Tribes around the world preferred to elevate their dead instead of burying them. In Australia, and Siberia bodies were wrapped in a shroud and placed in a branch to decompose.

Zoroastrians: They believe the body to be unclean and if buried or created would pollute the earth. So bodies are left on a mountain top in a ceremonial "tower of silence", open to the elements and passing animals. After the bones have dried and bleached in the sun, followers gather them up and dissolve them in lime.

Viking burial at sea: When wealthy Vikings died they were placed in ships along with food, weapons, jewels, and even sometimes servants and animals to provide for them in the afterlife. The boats were either buried in the ground or set alight and set adrift at sea.

Bog bodies: Travel in the Middle Ages was treacherous and many lost their lives while crossing perilous bogs in Ireland and the rest of Northern Europe. But some chose to be buried in the bogs, which happen to be perfect for the preservation of human flesh.

Plastination: The technique for preserving bodies involves dissecting the corpse, embalming it with a hardener and reconstituting the body into 'educational' positions.

Tibetan sky burial: The dead are placed upon a mountain top to be eaten by vultures and so buried in the air. Dismembered corpses are often mixed with flour and milk to entice the birds of prey and ensure the whole body leaves the ground. 

Neaderthal Cave Burial: Neaderthals buried their dead deep in dark caves before they began interring the bodies about 100,000 years ago. Some archeologists have argued the cave burial was a means of transfering the dead into the next world.

Cryonics: The freezing of the body to preserve it is currently only legal on the dead. The corpse is stored in liquid nitrogen solution to preserve it in the hope that death will become reversible.

Balinese cremation: Hindu cremation ceremonies in Bali are almost carnival-like in atmosphere. Festive floats accompany the body to be burnt. The corpse is place in a ceremonial bull receptacle and set on fire. (pic credit Dreamstime)

Mummification: With perhaps the most famous of all burial techniques the Ancient Egyptians treated their high-society corpses royally. After the organs had been removed from the cadaver the body was stuffed and wrapped in bandages before being placed in an ornately decorated casket resembling the deceased. Jewels, games, food and even model servants were placed in the casket for entertainment and protection in the afterlife.

Joanna Sugden

Comments

[Erika Nelson]

What about Promession? That's pretty extraordinary if you ask me. It's being developed in Sweden and involves freezing the body in liquid nitrogen, shattering it with sonic waves and then freeze drying the particles (so they are the consistency of instant coffee). The remains can then be buried or scattered and will reconstitute to nourish the plants and microbes in the ground. No wasted biological material burnt up with fossil fuels, no insulating the body (in a casket) from the earth from which it came.

[Kit]

I was a bit puzzled by the small spaceship apparently hovering below Uluru (Ayers Rock), but on second glance it is someone's hat? Must get my eyes tested....

[Claudemir Nery (from Brazil)]

Dear Editor,

This work is very important.
So we know the odd burial techniques around the world. There are another techniques of our natives indians, they buried their dieds in ceramic vases.
Congratulations and thank you very much.

Claudemir Nery
(From Brazil)

[Orgyen Peldren]

Your description of the Tibetan sky burial is inaccurate. The body is taken to a designated area (not always a mountain top), it is dismembered and left for not only vultures, but, wild animals to consume. After they are stripped of meat, the bones that are ground up and mixed with butter and tsampa (a roasted barley flour) to entice small birds to consume the last of the remains.

I would disagree that Plastination is a burial technique since it is a commercial venture for display and not a disposal of the body. Depending on which traveling exhibit of plastinized bodies, some of the bodies were actually purchased rather than donated.

[Kitty]

Kit - I think it's a bun on a tray. Perhaps to entice the birds?

[Zeebus]

Personally, I'd like to be sent to the bottom of the Miriana trench. I guess it's kind of deep...that way my wife couldn't find me to nag about something.

[Mac]

Erika -- fascinating! Does the freeze-drying process also halt any contagion? (I guess it would have to be more effective than burying at any rate...)

[balu]

The picture left of Balinese cremation does not belong to Bali. It belongs to north malabar the God's own country. There are numerous Theyyams in this area a form of performance arts where a particular tribe deocarates itself as Gods and perform inside the Hindu temples and devotees are blessed.

[JHSibal]

You were rather fast in loose with your information and an undergrad anthropoloist could have helped. In addition to comments already posted: Neanderthal,1)other Homo specie also had deliberate burials. H.Neanderthalensis in Iraqi examples use red ochre, grave goods & flowers. Different populations used different rites. Bogs:1) the burials were ritual, after human sacrifice/religious ceremonies. Please give an example of "choice". Egypt: grave goods were OUTSIDE the coffins(not caskets)which was placed in a sarkopagus. On the body were amulets.

[JP]

ERIKA: I think it's a skull on a plate.

[Philip]

Erika seems to think there would be "No wasted biological material burnt up with fossil fuels" with Promession. She is obviously unaware of how much energy it takes to cool nitrogen so it becomes liquid. That energy comes from fossil or nuclear fuel via a power station and a cryrogenic unit uses heaps of that energy.

[Asmodeus]

Memo to your headline writer.

One does not "depart" this mortal coil - one shuffles it off.