Grave

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Grave with burial vault awaiting coffin Fresh grave.JPG
Grave with burial vault awaiting coffin
The Steinbeck family graves in the Hamilton plot at the Salinas cemetery in California, United States SteinbeckGrave.jpg
The Steinbeck family graves in the Hamilton plot at the Salinas cemetery in California, United States
Grave with a cross with nails in Evros, Greece Grabkreuz mit Nageln.jpg
Grave with a cross with nails in Evros, Greece
Grave of Catherine Mansdotter, the queen of Sweden, at the Turku Cathedral in Turku, Finland Karin Mansdottir's grave.jpg
Grave of Catherine Månsdotter, the queen of Sweden, at the Turku Cathedral in Turku, Finland

A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries. [1]

Contents

In some religions, it is believed that the body must be burned or cremated for the soul to survive; in others, the complete decomposition of the body is considered to be important for the rest of the soul (see bereavement).

Description

Novi Banovci, Serbia Svjetlopis detalja sa groba, Novi Banovtsi, Srbija.jpg
Novi Banovci, Serbia

The formal use of a grave involves several steps with associated terminology.

Grave cut

The excavation that forms the grave. [2] Excavations vary from a shallow scraping to removal of topsoil to a depth of 6 feet (1.8 m) or more where a vault or burial chamber is to be constructed. However, most modern graves in the United States are only 4 feet (1.2 m) deep as the casket is placed into a concrete box (see burial vault) to prevent a sinkhole, to ensure the grave is strong enough to be driven over, and to prevent floating in the instance of a flood.

Excavated soil

The material dug up when the grave is excavated. It is often piled up close to the grave for backfilling and then returned to the grave to cover it. As soil decompresses when excavated and space is occupied by the burial not all the volume of soil fits back in the hole, so often evidence is found of remaining soil. In cemeteries, this may end up as a thick layer of soil overlying the original ground surface.

Burial or interment

The body may be placed in a coffin or other container, in a wide range of positions, by itself or in a multiple burial, with or without personal possessions of the deceased.

Burial vault

A vault is a structure built within the grave to receive the body. It may be used to prevent crushing of the remains, allow for multiple burials such as a family vault, retrieval of remains for transfer to an ossuary, or because it forms a monument.

Grave backfill

The soil returned to the grave cut following burial. This material may contain artifacts derived from the original excavation and prior site use, deliberately placed goods or artifacts, or later material. The fill may be left level with the ground or mounded.

Monument or marker

Headstones are best known, but they can be supplemented by decorative edging, footstones, posts to support items, a solid covering or other options.

Graveyards and cemeteries

Cemetery in Varengeville-sur-Mer, France Cimetiere marin de Varengeville-sur-mer (Seine-Maritime).JPG
Cemetery in Varengeville-sur-Mer, France
Interior of the Jewish memorial in Bratislava, Slovakia (with the grave of the rabbi Chatam Sofer at the left) Mausoleum of Moses Sofer.jpg
Interior of the Jewish memorial in Bratislava, Slovakia (with the grave of the rabbi Chatam Sofer at the left)
"Sahide" grave in Alanya, Turkey Sahide grave alanya.jpg
"Sahide" grave in Alanya, Turkey

Graveyards were usually established at the same time as the building of the relevant place of worship (which can date back to the 8th to 14th centuries) and were often used by those families who could not afford to be buried inside or beneath the place of worship itself. In most cultures those who were vastly rich, had important professions, were part of the nobility or were of any other high social status were usually buried in individual crypts inside or beneath the relevant place of worship with an indication of the name of the deceased, date of death and other biographical data. In Europe, this was often accompanied by a depiction of their family coat of arms.

Later, graveyards have been replaced by cemeteries.

In language

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funeral</span> Ceremony for a person who has died

A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect the dead, from interment, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honour. Customs vary between cultures and religious groups. Funerals have both normative and legal components. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved; additionally, funerals may have religious aspects that are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cemetery</span> Place of burial

A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park, is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Roman catacombs. The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burial</span> Ritual act of placing a dead person into the ground

Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects in it, and covering it over. A funeral is a ceremony that accompanies the final disposition. Evidence suggests that some archaic and early modern humans buried their dead. Burial is often seen as indicating respect for the dead. It has been used to prevent the odor of decay, to give family members closure and prevent them from witnessing the decomposition of their loved ones, and in many cultures it has been seen as a necessary step for the deceased to enter the afterlife or to give back to the cycle of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffin</span> Container for transport, laying out and burial of a corpse

A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burial at sea</span> Method of burial

Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship, boat or aircraft. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese funeral</span> Overview of Japanese funerals

The majority of funerals in Japan include a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave, and a periodic memorial service. According to 2007 statistics, 99.81% of deceased Japanese are cremated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burial vault (enclosure)</span> Container that encloses a coffin

A burial vault is a container, formerly made of wood or brick but more often today made of metal or concrete, that encloses a coffin to help prevent a grave from sinking. Wooden coffins decompose, and often the weight of earth on top of the coffin, or the passage of heavy cemetery maintenance equipment over it, can cause the casket to collapse and the soil above it to settle.

Disposal of human corpses, also called final disposition, is the practice and process of dealing with the remains of a deceased human being. Disposal methods may need to account for the fact that soft tissue will decompose relatively rapidly, while the skeleton will remain intact for thousands of years under certain conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natural burial</span> Method of burial

Natural burial is the interment of the body of a dead person in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition but allows the body to be naturally recycled. It is an alternative to typical contemporary Western burial methods and modern funerary customs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian burial</span> Religious funeral practice

A Christian burial is the burial of a deceased person with specifically Christian rites; typically, in consecrated ground. Until recent times Christians generally objected to cremation because it interfered with the concept of the resurrection of a corpse, and practiced inhumation almost exclusively. Today this opposition has all but vanished among Protestants and Catholics alike, and this is rapidly becoming more common, although Eastern Orthodox Churches still mostly forbid cremation.

Icelandic funerals are ceremonies that are largely shaped by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, the largest Christian organisation in Iceland. However, customs may vary depending on religious group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic funeral</span> Islamic religious custom

Funerals and funeral prayers in Islam follow fairly specific rites, though they are subject to regional interpretation and variation in custom. In all cases, however, sharia calls for burial of the body as soon as possible, preceded by a simple ritual involving bathing and shrouding the body, followed by Salat al-jinazah. It is important to determine the cause of death before burial. Mourning for the deceased is observed for three days except for the widow for whom it's 4 months and 10 days. Cremation of the body is strictly forbidden in Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burial vault (tomb)</span> Underground container for burial

A burial vault is a structural stone or brick-lined underground tomb or 'burial chamber' for the interment of a single body or multiple bodies underground. The main difference between entombment in a subterranean vault and a traditional in-ground burial is that the coffin is not placed directly in the earth, but is placed in a burial chamber specially built for this purpose. A burial vault refers to an underground chamber, in contrast to an above-ground, freestanding mausoleum. These underground burial tombs were originally and are still often vaulted and usually have stone slab entrances. They are often privately owned and used for specific family or other groups, but usually stand beneath a public religious building, such as a church, or in a churchyard or cemetery. A crypt may be used as a burial vault and a freestanding mausoleum may contain a burial vault beneath the ground.

The Funeral Rule, enacted by the Federal Trade Commission on April 30, 1984, and amended effective 1994, was designed to protect consumers by requiring that they receive adequate information concerning the goods and services they may purchase from a funeral provider.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funeral practices and burial customs in the Philippines</span> Customs for the dead commonly practiced in the Philippines

During the Pre-Hispanic period the early Filipinos believed in a concept of life after death. This belief, which stemmed from indigenous ancestral veneration and was strengthened by strong family and community relations within tribes, prompted the Filipinos to create burial customs to honor the dead through prayers and rituals. Due to different cultures from various regions of the Philippines, many different burial practices have emerged. For example, the Manobos buried their dead in trees, the Ifugaos seated the corpse on a chari before it was brought to a cave and buried elsewhere. The most common forms of traditional burials are supine pits, earthenware jars, and log coffins, and have been a topic of interest among Philippine archaeologists since the early 20th century.

Burial in Anglo-Saxon England refers to the grave and burial customs followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the mid 5th and 11th centuries CE in Early Mediaeval England. The variation of the practice performed by the Anglo-Saxon peoples during this period, included the use of both cremation and inhumation. There is a commonality in the burial places between the rich and poor – their resting places sit alongside one another in shared cemeteries. Both of these forms of burial were typically accompanied by grave goods, which included food, jewelry, and weaponry. The actual burials themselves, whether of cremated or inhumed remains, were placed in a variety of sites, including in cemeteries, burial mounds or, more rarely, in ship burials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Saxon burial mounds</span> Burial mounds produced during the 6th and 7th centuries CE

An Anglo-Saxon burial mound is an accumulation of earth and stones erected over a grave or crypt during the late sixth and seventh centuries AD in Anglo-Saxon England. These burial mounds are also known as barrows or tumuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Receiving vault</span> Structure which temporarily stores dead bodies

A receiving vault or receiving tomb, sometimes also known as a public vault, is a structure designed to temporarily store dead bodies in winter months when the ground is too frozen to dig a permanent grave in a cemetery. Technological advancements in excavation, embalming, and refrigeration have rendered the receiving vault obsolete.

The archaeological sites Randlev and Hesselbjerg refer to two closely related excavations done throughout the 20th century near the village of Randlev in the Odder Municipality of Denmark, three kilometers southeast of the town of Odder. Randlev is known primarily for its Romanesque church constructed sometime around 1100 A.D. Hesselbjerg refers to the large Viking-Age cemetery discovered on the Hesselbjerg family farm and the site Randlev refers to the nearby settlement from the same period. Although both Randlev and Hesselbjerg were contemporaneous and encompass a similar area, Hesselbjerg refers more specifically to the 104 graves discovered prior to the later excavation at the site Randlev, which pertains to the Viking Age settlement. The settlement consisted of a farm complex that was likely active during the ninth and tenth centuries; finds from the site such as silver hoards and elaborate jewelry indicate that the farm was likely prosperous, a conjecture which is supported by the extremely fertile land surrounding the area. Artifacts were found in the vicinity of the Hesselbjerg and Randlev sites as early as 1932 when a local farmer discovered a silver hoard, but serious excavations were not conducted until 1963. These excavations ended in 1970; however, Moesgård Museum returned to the site in 1997 and continued analysis until 2010.

References

  1. Tütüncü, Mehmet (2015). "The Uppsala Mecca Painting: A New Source for the Cultural Topography and Historiography for Mecca". In Buitelaar, Marjo; Mols, Luitgard (eds.). Hajj: Global Interactions through Pilgrimage. Leiden: Sidestone Press. pp. 137–163. ISBN   978-90-8890-285-7.
  2. Ghamidi (2001), Customs and Behavioral Laws Archived 2013-09-23 at the Wayback Machine