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An unmarked grave is one that lacks a marker, headstone, or nameplate indicating that a body is buried there. [1] [2] However, in cultures that mark burial sites, the phrase unmarked grave has taken on a metaphorical meaning.
As a figure of speech, a common meaning of the term "unmarked grave" is consignment to an ignominious end. A grave monument (or headstone) is a sign of respect or fondness, erected with the intention of commemorating and remembering a person.[ citation needed ]
Conversely, a deliberately unmarked grave may signify disdain and contempt. The underlying intention of some unmarked graves may be to suggest that the person buried is not worthy of commemoration, and should therefore be completely ignored and forgotten, e.g., school shooters Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. [3]
Unmarked graves have long been used to bury executed criminals as an added degree of disgrace. Similarly, many 18th and 19th century prisons and mental asylums historically used numbered (but otherwise featureless) markers in their inmate cemeteries, which allowed for record-keeping and visitations while also minimizing the shame associated with having one's family name on permanent display in such a disreputable context. Plot E at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery (consisting entirely of soldiers executed for rape and/or murder) is a rare example of this policy persisting into the 20th century.
More recently, the practice has been to cremate and secretly scatter the ashes of notorious criminals in some anonymous place. Cremation and secret scattering of the ashes also has the additional effect of removing all possibility of there being a grave to visit in the future. This was the fate of Nazi war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Fritz Sauckel, and Julius Streicher. The remains of British serial killers Myra Hindley, Dr Harold Shipman, and Fred West were treated in the same way. A similar proceeding was carried out with the remains of Martin Bormann, who committed suicide shortly after the fall of Berlin in 1945, and whose remains, found in 1972 and identified in 1998, were disposed of in the Baltic Sea in 1999.
After he was killed in 2011 as part of Operation Neptune Spear, the body of Osama bin Laden was placed in a weighted plastic bag and made to sink into the sea at an undisclosed location. A year after his death, the headstone of disgraced television presenter and alleged sex offender Jimmy Savile was removed and destroyed in 2012, three weeks after being erected, when posthumous allegations of sexual abuse over decades came to light. [4] The ashes of Abimael Guzmán, the leader of the Peruvian Maoist terrorist organization Shining Path, who died in prison in 2021, had his remains secretly disposed of by Peruvian authorities.
In Judaism, contact with a corpse confers uncleanness (see Numbers 19:11-22 and Tractate Oholoth in the Mishna). Cohanim, descendants of Aaron, are prohibited from approaching within 4 cubits of a grave, except for when a funeral is of a close relative. Thus, an unmarked grave opens up the possibility that a pious Jew could become defiled without being aware that it happened. The Jews of early times, therefore, sought to avoid unmarked graves by two means: clearly designating cemeteries beyond the limits of their villages and cities, and making graves and tombs obvious by whitewashing them. This is the background for Jesus' comparison of the Pharisees of his time to white-washed tombs (see Matthew 23:27-28) and to "unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it" (Luke 11:44). Jesus warned that the Pharisees were defiling others by their hypocrisy, misplaced priorities, and selfish ambition.[ citation needed ]
However, disdain and contempt are not the only reasons why graves remain unmarked.
According to legend, Genghis Khan asked to be buried without markings or any sign, and after he died, his body was returned to Mongolia.
As Alicia Hoyt reports: "Historically, financial limitations and social status were factors in whether a person (even a famous one) was awarded a big fancy marker. Mass, unmarked graves were also common in times of widespread disease or war; plus older markers simply deteriorated over time or were stolen. Another reason might be: other gravesites reflect the wishes of the deceased or family members who simply don't want a marker, can't decide on wording, or plan to add one down the line when a loved one passes away and joins them in the plot." [5] [6] [1]
Additionally, "modern celebrity concerns" may be related to a desire for privacy or to avoid vandalism. [1] For example, basketball player Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, singer Michael Jackson, businessman and Apple's Founder Steve Jobs, actor George C. Scott, musician Frank Zappa, singer Roy Orbison, comedian John Belushi, and writer H. P. Lovecraft (discussed below) are notable people whose burial sites have been left unmarked (or marked deceptively) for reasons that are not financial.
In cases when a person's remains are lost, a cenotaph may be erected. This is what happened to comedian John Belushi. The gravestone at his grave in a Martha's Vineyard cemetery was removed and relocated, after operators of the cemetery found many signs of vandalism and rowdiness, where his body lies. In response, a cenotaph gravestone was erected at a nearby empty grave, to deter disrespectful visitors, leaving his actual final resting place without a marker. Another Belushi cenotaph gravestone was erected by his family in a Chicago area cemetery, at the Belushi family plot, where his parents are now buried.[ citation needed ] Similarly, when H. P. Lovecraft's headstone in Providence, Rhode Island was stolen, a replacement marker was erected in a different location.[ citation needed ]
Deceased monarchs and princes of Saudi Arabia are buried in unmarked graves in the public Al Oud cemetery in Riyadh. There is also typically no state funeral or national show of mourning. The Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia considers public shows of grief or memorials to the dead to be un-Islamic, and therefore the royal family typically practices austere, private burials. [7]
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.
A grave is a location where a dead body 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.
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on it, along with a personal message, or prayer, but may contain pieces of funerary art, especially details in stone relief. In many parts of Europe, insetting a photograph of the deceased in a frame is very common.
Old Chapel Hill Cemetery is a graveyard and national historic district located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Oakland Cemetery is one of the largest cemetery green spaces in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded as Atlanta Cemetery in 1850 on six acres (2.4 hectares) of land southeast of the city, it was renamed in 1872 to reflect the large number of oak and magnolia trees growing in the area. By that time, the city had grown and the cemetery had enlarged correspondingly to the current 48 acres (190,000 m2). Since then, Atlanta has continued to expand so that the cemetery is now located in the center of the city. Oakland is an excellent example of a Victorian-style cemetery, and reflects the "garden cemetery" movement started and exemplified by Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts.
St. Marx Cemetery is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It contains the unmarked grave of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, the first being that of wheelwright Robert Creighton. Managed by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, the cemetery attracts more than one million visitors each year. Cypress trees located near the main entrance are a hallmark of Karrakatta Cemetery. The cemetery contains a crematorium, and in 1995 Western Australia's first mausoleum opened at the site.
Holy Rood Cemetery is located at 2126 Wisconsin Avenue N.W. at the southern end of Glover Park, adjacent to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. It is at one of the highest elevations in the city and has memorable views. The cemetery contains approximately 7,000 burials, including as many as 1,000 free and enslaved African Americans. It may be the best-documented slave burial ground in the District of Columbia.
The Scottish or Lowland Scottish gravestone is unique to the north of the British Isles. The study of Scottish Lowland Gravestones is essential to the overall study of British monumental inscriptions. The level of symbolism and detail on Scottish stones reached a peak during the 18th century.
The Mechanic Street Cemetery is a historic early cemetery on Mechanic Street in Westfield, Massachusetts. The 4-acre (1.6 ha) cemetery is the city's oldest, with the oldest documented grave dating to 1683. It was used as a burying ground until the late 19th century, although its use began to decline in the middle of the century, with the advent of the popular rural cemetery movement, which was reflected in Westfield with the establishment of the new Pine Hill Cemetery in 1842. No burials were recorded in the 20th century. Although the cemetery has been subjected to some maintenance work, it continues to suffer the effects of vandalism and weather. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The East Main Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on East Main Street in Dalton, Massachusetts. The cemetery is one of the oldest in the town, with grave markers dating to the 1780s. It was founded on land owned by the Chamberlin family, whose identified graves make up about 20 percent of roughly 250 gravesites. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
The Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts is, according to the American Cemetery Association, the oldest maintained cemetery in the United States.
Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site. It has more than 4,000 marked graves with an estimated further 3,000 burials in unmarked plots. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Flemington Road Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at Flemington Road, Bowen, Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1878 to 1954. It is also known as Bowen Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 July 1999.
Greenwich Cemetery is a cemetery in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in southeast London. It is situated on the southwestern slopes of Shooter's Hill, on the western side of the A205 South Circular, Well Hall Road, approximately halfway between Woolwich, to the north, and Eltham, to the south.
Captain Thunderbolt's Grave is a heritage-listed burial site located at Uralla Square in Uralla, Uralla Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The grave comprises a marble headstone, designed by Mr Callcott, and built in 1914. It is also known as Uralla Old General Cemetery. It is one of a group of historic sites labelled The Captain Thunderbolt Sites for their association with bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, along with Captain Thunderbolt's Rock, Blanch's Royal Oak Inn, and Captain Thunderbolt's Death Site. Collectively, all properties were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 20 July 2012.
Shaarey Zedek Cemetery is a Conservative Jewish burial ground in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Operated by the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, it is the largest Jewish cemetery in the Canadian Prairies, with more than 8,000 graves as of 1996. In 2012, a Jewish interfaith burial ground was installed in a fenced-off section with a separate entrance to accommodate interment of Jews alongside their non-Jewish spouses. The cemetery features a war memorial honouring Winnipeg residents who fell in World War I and World War II.
The Lonely Graves Historic Reserve is an old gold mining cemetery in Central Otago, New Zealand. It is in an area which was known as Horseshoe Bend, on the eastern bank of the Clutha/Mata-Au River, about 10 km downstream from the township of Millers Flat. The Reserve is administered by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
The Canadian Indian residential school system were a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. Directed and funded by the Department of Indian Affairs, and administered mainly by Christian churches, the residential school system removed and isolated Indigenous children from the influence of their own native culture and religion in order to forcefully assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture. Given that most of them were established by Christian missionaries with the express purpose of converting Indigenous children to Christianity, schools often had nearby mission churches with community cemeteries. Students were often buried in these cemeteries rather than being sent back to their home communities, since the school was expected by the Department of Indian Affairs to keep costs as low as possible. Additionally, occasional outbreaks of disease led to the creation of mass graves when the school had insufficient staff to bury students individually.
The Unknown Confederate Soldier of Gray, Maine is an unidentified uniformed man whose body was mistakenly sent to the family of fallen Union soldier Charles H. Colley in Gray, Maine in 1862 during the American Civil War.
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