tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/burial-13156/articles
Burial – The Conversation
2024-03-15T17:34:37Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225409
2024-03-15T17:34:37Z
2024-03-15T17:34:37Z
Elephant calves have been found buried – what does that mean?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581912/original/file-20240314-30-qjw8cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent study by Indian scientists outlined cases of elephant burials. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-baby-not-african-elephant-under-93598702">worradirek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/elephant-graveyards">myth of elephant graveyards</a> has pervaded popular culture, and recent observations of buried Asian elephant calves may finally give that legend some credence. </p>
<p>In the research published in the <a href="https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/8826">Journal of Threatened Taxa</a>, two scientists describe five instances where elephant calves have been found buried in a legs-upright position within irrigation trenches of tea plantations in northern Bengal, India. The authors argue that the unusual positioning, the surrounding ground being compacted by the feet of several elephants and injuries suggestive of dragging after death, all point to intentional burial practices. </p>
<p>If this conclusion is accurate, these observations could indicate an understanding of death and grief potentially unlike anything else we’ve seen in the animal kingdom, revealing yet another way in which <a href="https://theconversation.com/would-we-still-see-ourselves-as-human-if-other-hominin-species-hadnt-gone-extinct-166759">humans are not as unique</a> as previously thought. </p>
<p>Archaeological evidence suggests our hominid ancestors have been burying their dead for at least 100,000 years – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/06/05/homo-naledi-burial/#">potentially much longer</a>. Burials are intriguing because of what they suggest about the minds of those doing the burying. For us – and presumably for our ancestors who started this practice – burial is not just about disposing of bodies, but an <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2018.0212">expression of grief</a> and an honouring of the life that has passed. </p>
<p>Across cultures, people put time and effort into the rituals of burial as a way of commemorating life. Burials are a clear indication of our sentience and empathy. Indeed, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-grief-137665#:%7E:text=We%20grieve%20for%20the%20loss,which%20they%20were%20a%20part.">commonly believed</a> that our reactions to death signify humanity. To date, evidence of similar mental representations of death are scarce in other animal species, and despite a few anecdotes, no animal species has been found to systematically bury their dead in the ritualised way that we do. </p>
<h2>Are elephant burials intentional?</h2>
<p>It may be too early to cross burials off the uniquely human list. While the recent reports of calf burials are intriguing, these five burials were not directly observed, so questions remain. It is possible, for example, that dead or weak calves fell into the trenches as they were being carried, before the ensuing panic of the family caused the trench to collapse around the body. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1762664999728902598"}"></div></p>
<p>However, reports of burial are at least consistent with what we know about elephants’ acute reactions to death. Elephants have been observed carrying corpses of dead infants. They frequently show a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0400">change in behaviour as they approach a carcass of a family member or another individual</a>. </p>
<p>This response can involve silent investigating, sniffing and touching body parts with their head held low, perhaps trying to move or rouse the carcass, and on rare occasions, <a href="https://www.elephantvoices.org/elephant-sense-a-sociality-4/elephants-are-intelligent.html">placing mud or large palm fronds</a> over the bodies of dead relatives. This all likely amounts to what, in humans, we would recognise as grief or mourning. </p>
<h2>Understanding death</h2>
<p>Of course, elephants are not the only animals to show interesting reactions to dead associates. <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/raven-crow-funerals-intelligence">Crows often gather around</a> and mob the carcass of another dead crow, in what has sometimes been called a funeral. This social gathering appears to provide the crows with an opportunity to learn about a danger to be avoided, lest they end up in the same state (as opposed to offering the chance to say goodbye in the traditional sense of funerals). </p>
<p>Even some social insects, such as ants, will clear away their dead. When ants detect certain chemicals released by dying or dead individuals in their colony, it induces them to <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0258">remove the bodies</a> – and in a few species even to bury them – in order to limit the possibility of disease transfer. </p>
<p>However, as researchers that study animal behaviour and, more specifically, grief, we have no reason to assume this extraordinary “corpse management” behaviour means that the ants have any understanding of life or death. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2009/04/01/102601823/hey-im-dead-the-story-of-the-very-lively-ant">biologist and entomologist E.O. Wilson</a> applied the critical chemical to live ants, causing nest mates to respond as they would to a dead animal. They tried to drag the unfortunate individual out of the nest and dumped them a safe distance away. </p>
<p>Similar responses to the chemicals of decay have been noted in rats, who bury others that have been dead for long enough to turn putrid. Like Wilson’s ants, they also try to bury anaesthetised – but still living – rats sprinkled with the signature scent of decomposition. They even try to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0031938481900482">bury wooden sticks</a> that have the same scent. Some social living animals are hard-wired to remove decaying items from their nest area. </p>
<p>These examples in rats and ants are clearly different to human burial, and to the mourning behaviour we see in elephants and several other species <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-grieving-mother-orca-tells-us-about-how-animals-experience-death-101230">including orcas</a>. </p>
<p>While the jury may still be out on whether or not elephants really choose to bury their dead, their emotional reactions to the death of family members or associates are undeniably extraordinary and deeply moving to observe. These reactions remain difficult to explain adequately without suggesting that elephants do have some kind of concept of death. </p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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Recent reports of burials of elephant calves are intriguing but it’s impossible to confirm that this was intentional.
Lucy A. Bates, Senior Lecturer in Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Portsmouth
Leanne Proops, Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, University of Portsmouth
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222115
2024-02-13T10:30:46Z
2024-02-13T10:30:46Z
Forget flowers, the greatest gift for 18th century romantics was the heart of a deceased lover
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571688/original/file-20240126-19-6pzd9u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C22%2C1310%2C1191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sigismunda Mourning Over the Heart of Guiscardo by William Hogarth (1759).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hogarth-sigismunda-mourning-over-the-heart-of-guiscardo-n01046">Tate</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every Valentine’s Day, we’re inundated with hearts. We purchase cards with hearts and heart-shaped balloons. We wear clothing with hearts and adorn ourselves with heart-shaped jewellery. We ingest heart-shaped foods and candies and send heart emojis in texts. </p>
<p>While we may fall victim to Valentine’s Day commodification and heart-logo mania, there was a time in our not too distant past when actual human hearts were cherished, preserved, worn or placed in <a href="https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/index.php/object-biography-index/19-prmcollection/75-human-heart-in-a-heart-shaped-cist-18845718.html">special urns</a> and enshrined.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823776/death-and-the-body-in-the-eighteenth-century-novel/">My research</a> into 18th century preservation practices led me to a favourite book that details these heart histories of the famous and infamous: historian Charles Bradford’s quirky tome, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Heart_Burial.html?id=1kxQnwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Heart Burial</a> (1933).</p>
<p>Amazingly sweeping and entertaining, the book narrates the heart journeys of many – primarily western – military, religious and political figures. One such figure, the diplomat Sir William Temple (1628-1699), is buried next to his wife in Westminster Abbey. </p>
<p>But in his will, he directed his heart “be buried in a silver box under a sundial in the garden of Moor Park, near Farnham, Surrey, opposite his favourite window-seat overlooking the garden he had loved so well”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A silver heart cardiotaph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571692/original/file-20240126-17-2qdcxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A silver heart cardiotaph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thebookofdays.com/months/oct/images/silver_heart.jpg">Book of Days</a></span>
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<p>One haunting entry describes William King (1684-1763), the principal of St Mary’s Hall, Oxford, who requested his heart be placed in a silver urn and deposited in St Mary’s Hall Chapel. There, the book says: “A curious sound of tapping [can be] heard before midnight … said to be caused by the beating of his heart.”</p>
<p>In 2015, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0167988">five 17th-century embalmed hearts</a> in heart-shaped and engraved urns were found buried under the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, France. </p>
<p>Archaeologists identified one of the hearts as that of Toussaint de Perrien who, in a loving gesture, had his heart placed in a cardiotaph (a heart-shaped lead urn) and buried with his wife, Louise de Quengo. </p>
<p>The practice of preserving the heart – the ancient symbol of the soul and emotion – was not uncommon. But for people in the 18th century, as this case and others show, it also symbolised lovers being united in death.</p>
<h2>Literary hearts</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most storied literary heart is that of poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Shelley died tragically just shy of 30 years old, drowning when his boat, the Don Juan, was wrecked during a storm off the coast of Italy.</p>
<p>Shelley’s body, along with that of two companions, washed ashore in the Gulf of Spezia ten days later. Italian law required the cremation of a drowning victim’s body, so Shelley’s corpse was laid upon a funeral pyre on the shores of the sea, with literary luminaries such as Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt in attendance. </p>
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<img alt="Painting of men dressed in black watching body on funeral pyre on a beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571684/original/file-20240126-19-2podus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Funeral of Shelley by Louis Edouard Fournier (1889).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/funeral-of-shelley">National Museum Liverpool</a></span>
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<p>Novelist <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Recollections_of_the_Last_Days_of_Shelle/5IAOAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1">Edward John Trelawney’s graphic account</a> of extracting Shelley’s calcified heart cemented the morbidly romantic legend. Kept in spirits by Hunt, the heart was eventually returned to Shelley’s wife, the novelist Mary Shelley, who kept it in a desk drawer the remainder of her life. </p>
<p>The year after her own death, the heart was discovered in her desk, wrapped in a silk bag and surrounded by the pages of Adonais, Percy’s elegy to John Keats. The Shelleys’ son, Sir Percy Florence, had his father’s heart encased in silver and placed on display at Boscombe Manor. Upon his death in 1889, the heart was laid to rest in the family vault at St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth.</p>
<h2>Hungry hearts</h2>
<p>While the story of Shelley’s heart has a poetically morbid romance, Napoleon’s storied heart has quite an unromantic ending. </p>
<p>In May 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte’s corpse was autopsied over two days before it was to be transported from St Helena to France. Napoleon had requested his intestines be preserved and given to his son, and his heart be sent to his wife Empress Marie-Louise.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Napoleonic_Anecdotes/Nko2AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=napoleon%27s+heart&pg=PA285&printsec=frontcover">Legend</a> has it that following the first day of the embalming process, Napoleon’s valet awakened the surgeon to inform him that the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alte_Liebe_rostet_nicht-IMG_0572.jpg">notorious rats of St Helena</a> had eaten Napoleon’s heart (which had been placed under a sheet with Napoleon’s body). Allegedly, the surgeon requested a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Academy_and_Literature/3JG4oRRTNJIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=napoleon%27s+embalmed+heart&pg=PA318&printsec=frontcover">sheep’s heart</a> replace Napoleon’s without anyone being the wiser.</p>
<p>When rumours circulated in January 1928 regarding the heart of renowned English novelist Thomas Hardy, many were in disbelief. Hardy’s ashes were to be placed in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. But first, his widow had requested that his body be dissected so that his heart could be removed and placed in a custom-made brass urn and <a href="https://dorset-ancestors.com/?cat=206">buried at St Michael’s Church, Stinsford</a>, near Dorchester. </p>
<p>Unbelievably, the surgeon who performed the autopsy placed the heart in Mrs Hardy’s biscuit tin, a temporary resting place until the funeral director, Charles Hannah, was to arrive the next day with the bespoke receptacle. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Florence Hardy by the sea" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571685/original/file-20240126-23-m5qnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Florence Hardy, Thomas Hardy’s wife, requested the separate burial of his heart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/photoneg/oneITEM.asp?pid=39002036247386&iid=3624738&srchtype=">Yale University</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>When Hannah arrived and noticed the upturned tin, with most of the heart missing, he supposedly strangled Cobby, the guilty culprit – and Hardy’s favourite Persian cat. Placing the dead cat with the remainder of the <a href="https://westdorsetconfidential.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/ardys-eart-and-the-hungry-cat/">heart in a box</a>, he left the Hardy residence, surrounded by mourners, and proceeded to St Michael’s where the contents were buried.</p>
<p>While heart preservation and burials still occur today – mainly for those requesting the ancient tradition of being buried in the Holy Land, or other places of religious significance – for most, this sentimental and morbid practice has died out.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is one of the reasons that at this time of year we frantically obsess over everything heart-shaped – a symbolic gesture to a lost tradition emblazoned on our collective conscious by our romantic forbears. Though Napoleon’s and Hardy’s storied hearts also serve as reminders, perhaps, that we shouldn’t take romantic traditions too seriously.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jolene Zigarovich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Novelist Mary Shelley kept the heart of her deceased husband, the poet Percy Shelley, in her desk drawer.
Jolene Zigarovich, Associate Professor of English, University of Northern Iowa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213479
2023-11-08T13:53:29Z
2023-11-08T13:53:29Z
Turkana stone beads tell a story of herder life in a drying east Africa 5,000 years ago
<p>On the shores of Lake Turkana in east Africa, about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, pastoralists buried their dead in communal cemeteries that were marked by stone circles and pillars. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721975115">The north-west Kenya “pillar sites”</a> were built around the same time as Stonehenge in the UK. But these places have a different story to tell: about how mortuary traditions reflect people’s environments, behaviours and reactions to change.</p>
<p>The burial sites appeared at a time of major <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027737912200021X">environmental</a> and economic <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825217303331">change</a> in the region. The Sahara, which received enough rainfall 9,000-7,000 years ago to sustain populations of fisher-hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, was <a href="https://pastglobalchanges.org/publications/pages-magazines/pages-magazine/7413">drying</a>, causing groups of people to move east and south. Even in eastern Africa, lake levels were dropping dramatically; grassy plains were expanding. Around Lake Turkana, people began herding animals in addition to fishing and foraging. </p>
<p>At several of the pillar sites around Lake Turkana, archaeologists have found that hundreds of people were <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-019-00914-4">ceremonially interred</a> under large, circular platform mounds. Many of those individuals were found wearing remarkable colourful stone beads, some as part of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other jewellery worn, for example, around the waist. These beautiful personal ornaments include blue-green amazonite, soft pink zeolite, deep red chalcedony, purple fluorite and green talc, among other minerals and rocks.</p>
<p>I study relationships between humans and their environments, especially at times of major economic transformations, using scientific techniques applied to archaeology. I recently led a team of experts in geology and archaeology of the region to conduct the first comprehensive mineralogical <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00934690.2023.2232703">analysis</a> of the Turkana stone beads. </p>
<p>The focus of our study was to discover what types of minerals and rocks the early herders had used to make adornments, and where these materials came from. </p>
<p>This kind of information can tell archaeologists about the role of artefacts in the society that used them.</p>
<h2>Wearing beads</h2>
<p>Humans have been making and wearing beads for over <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi8620">140,000 years</a>. Beads are one of the oldest forms of symbolism and are often used as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tiny-ostrich-eggshell-beads-that-tell-the-story-of-africas-past-128577">adornment</a> in a culture. Wearing something on your body is an expressive choice that can have many meanings, such as protection, acknowledgement of friendships and bonds, status or role in society. Personal ornaments like beads may indicate a common cultural understanding. </p>
<p>Analysis of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-excavated-beads-tell-us-about-the-when-and-where-of-human-evolution-53695">beads in archaeological sites</a> has shown that we can learn many things from them. </p>
<p>At the Turkana pillar sites, the stone bead tradition was clearly important, partly because of the number of beads found accompanying burials, and partly because the practice persisted for hundreds of years. </p>
<p>Knowing the range of materials helps us understand landscape use in the past: where people were buried, where they watered their animals, seasonal movements for grazing, special yearly trips to significant places and other movements. Pastoralists recorded or marked their worlds by what they left behind and what they took with them. Patterns in the composition of the bead collections may indicate there was communication and exchange of objects across the region.</p>
<h2>Sorting the stone beads</h2>
<p>Of the six pillar sites that have been excavated by archaeologists, three have yielded substantial assemblages of stone beads: Lothagam North, Manemanya and Jarigole. Our team began by sorting the stone beads by site, and by their mineral and rock types.</p>
<p>Our study identified the mineral characteristics of 806 stone beads. We looked at properties like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/specific-gravity">specific gravity</a>, crystal and molecular structure, and the characteristic emissions that are particular to certain minerals. </p>
<p>What we found was a strikingly diverse set of beads that varied by site. The visual characteristics of some of the beads – colour, lustre and so on – may have made them particularly valuable or had a special meaning economically, socially, spiritually or symbolically. Their source and workability may also have given them a certain value. </p>
<p>Pink zeolites and turquoise amazonites were the most common stone beads at the site of Lothagam North, comprising over three-quarters of the assemblage. This was very similar to the site of Jarigole, located across the lake. The sites are hundreds of kilometres apart, with Lake Turkana in between – suggesting a cultural connection between them.</p>
<p>In contrast, the kinds of beads at Manemanya were different: mostly softer and paler pink and off-white calcite beads that were quite large. Further, while at Lothagam North there often were just a few beads found with any individual, one person at Manemanya was buried with over 300 stone beads and over 10,000 ostrich eggshell beads. </p>
<p>This suggests that although having stone beads was a commonality across the sites, distinctions – and distinct meanings for different people – did exist. </p>
<h2>Sourcing stones</h2>
<p>We also wanted to know whether the beads were produced from local sources (within a few days’ walk) or acquired through long-distance journeys or trade. Sourcing allows us to partially reconstruct how the earliest pastoralists moved around the landscape during the year.</p>
<p>A survey of the areas west of Lake Turkana and a search of the published literature on the geology of the region identified places where these materials might have come from.</p>
<p>There are possible sources for most of these materials within about 150km of the pillar sites. Limestone rocks may have been procured easily near the lake. Some of the tougher materials, like the chalcedonies, could have been carried to the lake area by rivers, to be picked up perhaps by someone watering cattle or fetching water from a stream. Other minerals come from a specific source. The variety of bead types demonstrates that people knew their landscape well.</p>
<p>Sometimes, they went out of their way to get certain minerals, or perhaps traded for them. The closest known sources for amazonite and fluorite are, respectively, 225 km, in southern Ethiopia; and 350 km, near the modern city of Eldoret, Kenya. </p>
<p>These suggest that bead making was not just a casual affair; material selection was intentional.</p>
<h2>Local landscapes</h2>
<p>Early herders in the Turkana Basin obtained materials from both local and distant places, and shaped them into personal adornments. These stone beads were placed with the dead, in numbers and combinations that differed by individual and place. We don’t yet fully know what they meant – but future research in the Turkana Basin will continue to explore the lives and legacies of these pioneering herders as they negotiated new environmental and social landscapes.</p>
<p><em>Edits and comments for this article were provided by Late Prehistory of West Turkana project co-directors Drs. Elizabeth Hildebrand and Katherine Grillo, project minerologist Mark Helper, and Emmanuel Ndiema, who helped lead the sourcing study.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding for Klehm's research on the pillar site stone beads was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.</span></em></p>
Mineralogical analysis of 5,000-year-old stone beads from Turkana, Kenya suggest a novel mortuary tradition by early pastoralists.
Carla Klehm, Research Assistant Professor, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209782
2023-11-01T12:34:59Z
2023-11-01T12:34:59Z
American individualism lives on after death, as consumers choose new ways to put their remains to rest
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556389/original/file-20231028-21-xyvvvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1022%2C803&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">LifeGem is a company that extracts carbon from cremated human remains and transforms it into diamonds to remember loved ones. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-undated-handout-from-lifegem-a-diamond-made-from-news-photo/55872324?adppopup=true">Handout/LifeGem via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Death may be inevitable and universal, but the ways people deal with it most certainly are not. Whether doing <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sky-burial">Tibetan Buddhist sky burials</a>, attending a graveside service dressed in black or putting one’s parents’ ashes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEOBW1PvMqo">in the sacred Ganges</a>, each culture has its own ways to deal with death and mourning.</p>
<p>Yet death rites around the world do share some common goals. Traditionally, what happens to a dead body reflects communal beliefs and practices – rituals not only meant to honor the deceased but also to comfort their community.</p>
<p>Increasingly, however, people in the United States are choosing unconventional ways to dispose of their bodies. Today, fans of music might have their cremated remains <a href="https://www.andvinyly.com/">pressed into LPs</a>. Wannabe astronomers can be <a href="https://www.celestis.com/experiences-pricing/">shot into space</a>. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/diana-blaine/">my research on death in the U.S.</a> – from <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12031348/Death_on_Display_The_Ideological_Function_of_the_Mummies_of_the_World_Exhibit">mummy exhibits</a> and lurid true crime cases to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315091181-14/going-see-king-christianity-celebrity-michael-jackson-memorial-diana-york-blaine">Michael Jackson’s celebrity-filled memorial</a> – I have found that many Americans are more attracted to sensational portrayals of mortality than realistic ones. </p>
<p>Similarly, I believe these new funeral practices present death as a fantastic, personalized adventure, rather than something natural and inevitable. They emphasize the power of the individual consumer – up to and including the last purchase they’ll ever make.</p>
<h2>Comfort and community</h2>
<p>Even when expected, death is always upsetting, unsettling mourners’ sense of normalcy. One important function of death rituals is to help survivors process their grief and reestablish order. </p>
<p>Many funerary rituals also emphasize the immortality of the deceased, whom they depict as entering another realm of existence. <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Death,+Mourning,+and+Burial:+A+Cross+Cultural+Reader,+2nd+Edition-p-9781119151760">Depending on the particular culture</a>, this journey might require the community to burn the body, leave it exposed to carrion animals, bury it or mummify it.</p>
<p>Christians in the United States have long practiced earth burial, gathering at the graveside to witness their loved one’s final interment. A minister preaches about the soul, which in this faith is believed to transcend the body and spend eternity in a heavenly afterlife – providing that the person lived a life in line with religious dictates. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Seven people in a line, wearing black, stand near a coffin outside as another man with glasses reads from a book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556390/original/file-20231028-21-otrkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christian burial traditions have deeply shaped the U.S. funeral industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-at-a-funeral-royalty-free-image/104302968?phrase=christian+burial+service&adppopup=true">RubberBall Productions/Brand X Pictures via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Christian teachings that Jesus will ultimately <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15%3A49%E2%80%9352&version=KJV">resurrect believers’ bodies</a> on Judgment Day, not just their souls, helped shape standards of funeral practices, including embalming and casketing an intact body. These religious beliefs also influenced the emergence of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/115611/the-american-way-of-death-revisited-by-jessica-mitford/">the modern funeral industry</a> in the U.S.</p>
<h2>Long-term shifts</h2>
<p>For decades, though, American norms around death and funerals have been changing.</p>
<p>While the nation’s majority is still Christian, religious diversity has grown significantly. About 6% of Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">belong to another faith</a>, and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">around 3 in 10 are unaffiliated</a>, according to the Pew Research Center. More Americans than ever before count themselves among the “spiritual but not religious.” </p>
<p>Christianity’s decreasing dominance has helped give rise to new ways of handling death – including among Christians. Half of the people who die in the U.S. each year <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/04/18/cremation-death-funeral/">are now cremated</a>, <a href="https://escholarship.org/content/qt4xr4450n/qt4xr4450n_noSplash_97c0606d4c11343a1070bfc2931cd0ea.pdf">the traditional method</a> of bodily disposal for communities like Japanese Buddhists and South Asian Hindus.</p>
<p>But the increasing costs of burials have also made cremation <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-americans-today-are-choosing-cremation-heres-why-burials-are-becoming-less-common-186618">a more attractive option</a> for people from other religions. Among Christians, Protestants embraced the practice before Catholics, as the Vatican <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/world/europe/vatican-bans-scattering-of-human-ashes.html">banned cremation until 1963</a>. Yet cremated Christians may still opt to include other long-standing funeral practices into their memorial services, such as reading biblical passages and using Christian symbols on urns and other mementos.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in suits wheel a casket through a hallway and a door into the outdoors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556391/original/file-20231028-24-sa89s2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drive-by viewings at funeral homes helped people pay their final respects during the pandemic, despite limits on the number of people at gatherings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-coffin-of-lieselotte-tonon-is-brought-outside-the-news-photo/1248618210?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ordering your afterlife</h2>
<p>It is not just practices around death that have been changing, though, but attitudes.</p>
<p>Beginning in the 20th century, with the decrease in handling dead bodies at home, Americans grew increasingly uncomfortable with the contemplation of their own death. As my research on the popularity of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/38486918/Death_and_the_Maiden_Literally_Our_Enduring_Fascination_with_JonBenet_Ramsey">true crime</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qd3qf?turn_away=true">mummy exhibits</a> and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315091181-14/going-see-king-christianity-celebrity-michael-jackson-memorial-diana-york-blaine">celebrity deaths</a> has shown, many people prefer to think about mortality as a phenomenon that happens to others, often in spectacular and even entertaining ways.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/speccoll/collection_descriptions/gorer.html">Anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer</a> <a href="https://www.unz.com/print/Encounter-1955oct-00049/">argued in the 1950s</a> that with the decline in religious beliefs, death had become unbearable to think about – even death-bed scenes in literature had grown scarcer, he said. Instead, Gorer argued, depictions of death had become like pornography: something natural made taboo, a guilty pleasure, and represented in an unnatural light.</p>
<p>Today’s popularity of superhero and gangster films featuring violent deaths, or horror movies filled with otherworldly monsters, shows just how right he was. Death from natural causes, on the other hand, is typically shielded from view. Even the “Barbie” movie, which features a montage depicting what it means to be human, shies away from showing dying, grief or loss.</p>
<p>On an individual level, too, some Americans are opting to handle their remains in new ways, including methods that feel removed from the reality of death and decomposition. Rather than being planted under a field of green grass, for example, people who enjoyed hunting can choose to have their cremains <a href="http://www.myholysmoke.com/home.html">placed in bullet casings</a> – fantasizing their continued identity as killers. Those preferring a less aggressive finish might have their cremains <a href="https://www.saintdiamonds.com/how-it-works/">transformed into diamond jewelry</a>. A trace of carbon remains after bodies have been burned, and numerous companies will take that small bit and purify enough out of it to form a sparkly jewel.</p>
<p>Wearable memorial tokens actually have origins in the Victorian era. England’s Queen Victoria became <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/why-victorians-loved-hair-relics/">a symbol of public mourning</a> following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, whose hair she had fashioned into jewelry. During the era, locks from the dead were woven into designs, placed in frames and worn as pendants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cuff bracelet with photographs of two young girls, photographed against a turquoise background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556392/original/file-20231028-15-3z8egy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Victorian bracelet with a band of woven hair, from the mid-19th century, which may have been a piece of mourning jewelry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/victorian-bracelet-with-a-band-of-woven-hair-c1865-it-has-news-photo/464472069?adppopup=true">Museum of London/Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Traditional mourning jewelry, therfore, was a visible reminder of death, with the loved one’s hair on display. <a href="https://www.heart-in-diamond.com">Today’s commercial enterprises</a>, on the other hand, offer mass-marketed gemstones to a consumer public and look indistinguishable from any other jewelry, effectively hiding their relation to the dead body.</p>
<p>Lest jewelry seem too materialistic, nature lovers can request that they be <a href="https://www.eternalreefs.com/the-eternal-reefs-story/what-is-an-eternal-reef/">incorporated into coral reefs</a> <a href="https://www.thelivingurn.com/pages/tree-zip-code?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3dCnBhBCEiwAVvLcu04T9zeh8-7avOHcC6CGluCpbIC9c9TigedZaOoFXznCGd1pyoyDNxoC7vAQAvD_BwE">or trees</a> after death. The variety of products using hair and ashes keeps growing: <a href="https://marksturkenboom.com/Works/21-grams/">One company</a> creates glass sex toys that house customers’ cremains, while other services will package ashes <a href="https://heavenlystarsfireworks.com/">into fireworks</a> or <a href="https://skyhighskydiving.co.uk/ashes-scattering-jumps/">scatter them during a skydive</a>.</p>
<p>But despite these secular, consumer-based, highly individualized options reflecting the move away from traditional religious explanations for death, I believe each one still appeals to a desire for immortality. In that sense, they connect to a universal human longing to live on – as people who remain active, present and vital, even in death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Blaine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For some people, the decision over how to dispose of their body represents one last adventure – and one last consumer choice, a scholar explains.
Diana Blaine, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213173
2023-09-11T12:24:18Z
2023-09-11T12:24:18Z
The scent of the ancient Egyptian afterlife has been recreated – here’s what it smelled like
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547243/original/file-20230908-21-bulnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C150%2C1653%2C932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Burial ceremonies as depicted in the Book of the Dead of Hunefer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA9901-5">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To be human is to wonder what happens after we die. Is there an afterlife? If so, what does it look like? But a question you may not have asked yourself is: what does the afterlife smell like? To ancient Egyptians, however, there were very specific answers, and new research has shed light on this aspect of their burial practices. </p>
<p>Analysis of the oils and resins in limestone jars that held the organs of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557553">Senetnay</a>, a noblewoman of the 18th Dynasty who lived around 1450BC, has revealed a carefully formulated mix of ingredients. </p>
<p>Researchers have presented this as “the scent of the afterlife” in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-39393-y">scientific report</a>. The smell will be revealed in an interactive exhibition at <a href="https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/">Moesgaard Museum</a> in Denmark titled <a href="https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/exhibitions/upcoming-ancient-egypt-obsessed-with-life/">Ancient Egypt – Obsessed with Life</a>, opening on October 13 2023.</p>
<p>Senetnay’s role as a <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557553">wetnurse</a> to the future king <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amenhotep-II">Amenhotep II</a> ensured her place in the afterlife and saw her buried in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Valley-of-the-Kings">Valley of the Kings</a>. Unfortunately, her remains have not survived. But the embalming resin used for her preparation has. Its scent was both a reflection of her own status in royal circles and a statement of the king’s wealth and power. </p>
<h2>A high-status scent</h2>
<p>Amenhotep II inherited one of the largest empires ever known from his father, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thutmose-III">Thutmose III</a>. Senetnay was fortunate to live at a time of great prosperity for Egypt and to be part of the king’s entourage. Her canopic jars (containers that preserved the viscera of the dead for the afterlife) were recovered from <a href="https://archive.org/details/annalesduservice02egypuoft/page/196/mode/2up">tomb KV42</a> by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Carter">Howard Carter</a> in 1900. </p>
<p>The resin is not typical of an ancient Egyptian burial – even a high status one – as it was extremely expensive, with ingredients from distant lands. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A side on portrait of an Egyptian pharaoh wearing a gold hat and eyeliner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of Amenhotep II from his burial in the Valley of the Kings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amenhotep_II_Uraeus.jpg">Wiki Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such balms, resins and oils used in mummification provided pleasant aromas and practical functions in the preservation process, but also had spiritual significance. </p>
<p>This specific recipe seems to have been mixed specifically for Senetnay as it is different to other samples. She may have had some say in what was used – perhaps even her favourite scent. </p>
<h2>The scent of the afterlife</h2>
<p>Mummified human remains tend to smell relatively benign. The infusion of scented oils and resins has a lasting effect, especially in an undisturbed burial where the scent has been contained. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-technology/mummies-pigments-and-pretzels#:%7E:text=Natron%20is%20hydrated%20sodium%20carbonate,thus%20dry%20out%20a%20body.">salt</a> and <a href="https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/exhibits/online/mummification/materials.html">palm wine</a> used in the preparation of the body itself also helped to preserve the properties of the other ingredients. </p>
<p>There is often a distinct fragrance of pine or cedar, with some spiciness from cloves, cumin and myrrh, and warm notes from plants, flowers and trees. Senetnay’s balm is based largely around beeswax, plant oil and tree resin, with extra fats, bitumen and other resins. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white vase-shaped ceramic jar with hieroglyphics engraved on the side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A jar Inscribed for Senetnay found in and around the entrance of KV 42.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557553">The Met</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ingredients are a snapshot of Egypt’s empire and reach – several came from a considerable distance. Larch tree resin is likely to have been obtained from the northern Mediterranean. South-east Asia (perhaps more specifically India) is present in what is possibly <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2357581-ancient-egyptians-used-exotic-oils-from-distant-lands-to-make-mummies/#:%7E:text=Many%20of%20the%20substances%20were,dammar%22%20is%20a%20Malay%20word.">dammar tree resin</a>. </p>
<p>The researchers have still to establish conclusively if dammar was used – if so, this is an indication of the extent of the ancient Egyptian trade route, stretching to the tropical forests of south-east Asia.</p>
<p>Oils and bitumen from cypress, cedar or juniper add layers of scent, preservative and antibacterial properties. Beeswax is both antibacterial and acts as a binder and sealant. Animal fat adds consistency and carries oils well, and the mixture is heightened with plant and flower oils such as sesame or olive. </p>
<p>The resulting balm would have been intensely fragrant and crucial for the survival of Senetnay’s remains. The written record confirms the close association of scent with life and death. </p>
<p>One ancient Egyptian word for a bouquet or garland was a homonym for life – <em>ankh</em>. A poignant and beautiful 12th Dynasty composition known, among other titles, as <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.40597/page/n33/mode/2up">The Dialogue of a Man with his Ba</a> (soul) says: “Death is before me today, like the scent of myrrh, like the scent of flowers.”</p>
<h2>Scent at the museum</h2>
<p>Scent is one of our most powerful senses, with the ability to transport us to another time or place by triggering memories, so it is an unusual but effective way to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2022.2142012">engage museum visitors with the past</a>.</p>
<p>Smelling what the balm contained conveys much more than just a description would and it can enhance the experience for certain groups of visitors, such as the visually impaired, or those who engage more fully with such displays through an interactive approach.</p>
<p>Intangible aspects of ancient Egyptian funerary practice are by their nature difficult to research, and analysis of embalming materials has tended to focus on the body itself and its wrappings. However, some <a href="https://shorturl.at/mpRX3">research projects</a> have lately been attempting to address this gap in research, including concentration on the treatment of organs such as those of Senetnay. </p>
<p>The experience of an ancient funeral would have encompassed smell, sight, taste, sound, light, darkness and more. While we can reconstruct the process of embalming and burial through artefacts, we are doubtless missing very important aspects of the ritual that connects the deceased with their family, community and the ancestors they hope to join in the afterlife. </p>
<p>The luxuriousness of Senetnay’s provisioning for the afterlife should not obscure how profound and essential the materials and ritual were for her transfiguration in the tomb, complete and perfect for eternity, as fragrant as the gods.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Isabella Gilmour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There is often a distinct fragrance of pine or cedar, with some spiciness from cloves, cumin, myrrh, and warm notes from plants, flowers and trees.
Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188456
2022-10-28T01:11:10Z
2022-10-28T01:11:10Z
Coffin? Casket? Cremation? How to make your death more environmentally friendly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491536/original/file-20221025-156-2serq3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C36%2C6045%2C3387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We can all agree humans need to reduce their impact on the environment. And while most of us think of this in terms of daily activities – such as eating less meat, or being water-wise – this responsibility actually extends beyond life and into death. </p>
<p>The global population is closing on <a href="https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/global-population-will-soon-reach-8-billion-then-what">eight billion</a>, and the amount of land available for human burial is <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/deal-with-the-dead/">running out</a>, especially in small and densely populated countries. </p>
<p>To minimise environmental impact, human bodies should return to nature as quickly as possible. But the rate of decay in some of the most common traditional disposal methods is very slow. It can take <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-long-it-takes-human-body-decompose-grave-coffin-2019-8">several decades</a> for a body to decompose. </p>
<p>In a one-of-its-kind study, our team analysed <a href="https://irispublishers.com/gjfsm/fulltext/a-taphonomic-examination-of-inhumed-and-entombed-remains-in-parma-cemeteries-italy.ID.000518.php">408 human bodies</a> exhumed from grave pits and stone tombs in the north of Italy to find out what conditions help speed up decay.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488716/original/file-20221007-21261-h17m5t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We conducted research on bodies exhumed from the La Villetta cemetery in Parma, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edda Guareschi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The environmental cost of traditional burials</h2>
<p>Funeral rituals should respect the dead, bring closure to families and promote the reaching of the afterlife in accordance with people’s beliefs. This looks different for different people. Although the Catholic church has allowed cremation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/world/europe/vatican-bans-scattering-of-human-ashes.html">since 1963</a>, it still prefers burials. Muslims are always supposed to be buried, while most Hindus are cremated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indians-are-forced-to-change-rituals-for-their-dead-as-covid-19-rages-through-cities-and-villages-160076">Indians are forced to change rituals for their dead as COVID-19 rages through cities and villages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Australia, however, the latest census revealed almost 40% of the population identifies as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-religion-is-australias-second-largest-religious-group-and-its-having-a-profound-effect-on-our-laws-185697">not religious</a>”. This opens up more avenues for how people’s bodies may be handled after death.</p>
<p>Most traditional burial practices in industrialised countries have several long-lasting harmful <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/108132/EUR_ICP_EHNA_01_04_01%28A%29.pdf">effects</a> on the environment. Wood and metal fragments in coffins and caskets remain in the ground, leaching harmful chemicals through paint, preservatives and alloys. Chemicals used for embalming also remain in the ground and can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3315260/">contaminate</a> soil and waterways.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488208/original/file-20221005-26-nf21yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caskets made out of processed materials like metal and wood are bad for the environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cremation also has a large <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/is-cremation-environmentally-friendly-heres-the-science">carbon footprint</a>. It requires lots of trees for fuel and produces millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, as well as toxic volatile compounds.</p>
<p>There are several alternatives to traditional burials. These include “water cremation” or “resomation” (where the body is rapidly dissolved), human <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-26/body-composting-a-green-alternative-to-burial-cremation/100486964">composting</a>, mummification, cryonics (freezing and storage), <a href="https://eirene.ca/blog/space-burial-ashes-in-orbit">space burials</a>, and even turning the body into <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html">trees</a> or the ashes into <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/ashes-to-diamonds-reefs-rockets-how-we-will-memorialize-dead">diamonds</a> or <a href="https://www.andvinyly.com/">record vinyls</a>.</p>
<p>However, many of these alternatives are either illegal, unavailable, costly or not aligned with people’s beliefs. The vast majority choose coffin burials, and all countries accept this method. So the question of sustainable burials comes down to choosing between the many types of <a href="https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/burial-coffins-and-caskets/?gclid=CjwKCAjwx7GYBhB7EiwA0d8oe-mOKjLns2Gj5mpj-mu_kskmPPCKjhOqUrUAEjC05D4pnSXyBP3xrhoCE9oQAvD_BwE">coffins available</a>. </p>
<h2>What leads to faster decomposition?</h2>
<p>Coffins range from traditional wooden caskets, to cardboard coffins, to natural coffins made from willow, banana leaf or bamboo, which decompose faster. </p>
<p>The most environmentally sustainable choice is one that allows the body to decompose and reduce to a skeleton (or “skeletonise”) quickly – possibly in just a few years.</p>
<p>Our research has presented three key findings on conditions that promote the skeletonisation of human bodies.</p>
<p>First, it has confirmed that bodies disposed in traditionally sealed tombs (where a coffin is placed inside a stone space) can take more than 40 years to skeletonise. </p>
<p>In these sealed tombs, bacteria rapidly consume the oxygen in the stone space where the coffin is placed. This creates a micro-environment that promotes an almost indefinite preservation of the body. </p>
<p>We also found burial grounds with a high percentage of sand and gravel in the soil promote the decomposition and skeletonisation of bodies in less than ten years – even if they are in a coffin. </p>
<p>That’s because this soil composition allows more circulation of air and microfauna, and ample water drainage – all of which are helpful for degrading organic matter. </p>
<p>Finally, our research confirmed previous suspicions about the slow decomposition of entombed bodies. We discovered placing bodies inside stone tombs, or covering them with a stone slab on the ground, helps with the formation of corpse wax (or “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33596512/">adipocere</a>”).</p>
<p>This substance is the final result of several chemical reactions through which the body’s adipose (fat) tissues turn to a “soapy” substance that’s very resistant to further degradation. Having corpse wax slows down (if not completely arrests) the decomposition process. </p>
<h2>A new, greener option</h2>
<p>In looking for innovative burial solutions, we had the opportunity to experiment with a new type of body disposal in a tomb called an “<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/2/3/37">aerated tomb</a>”.</p>
<p>Over the past 20 years aerated tombs have been developed in some European countries including France, Spain and Italy (where they <a href="https://www.tecnofar-solutions.com/prodotti/sistema-aerato-loculi">have</a> <a href="https://www.argema.net/loculi-aerati/">been</a> <a href="https://www.ala-strutture-cimiteriali.com/loculi-aerati">commercialised</a>). They allow plenty of ventilation, which in turn enables a more hygienic and faster decomposition of bodies compared to traditional tombs.</p>
<p>They have a few notable features:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>an activated carbon filter purifies gases</p></li>
<li><p>fluids are absorbed by two distinct biodegrading biological powders, one placed at the bottom of the coffin and the other in a collecting tray beneath it</p></li>
<li><p>once the body has decomposed, the skeletal remains can be moved to an ossuary (a site where skeletal remains are stored), while the tomb can be dismantled and most of its components potentially recycled.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An ossuary is full of skeletal remains forming a pillar and lining the walls – with a large white cross in the centre of a back wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488204/original/file-20221005-26-o8c3fm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arguably one of the world’s most famous ossuaries, the Paris Catacombs is an underground labyrinth containing the remains of more than six million people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aerated tombs are also cheaper than ordinary tombs and can be built from existing tombs. They would be simple to use in Australia and would comply with public health and hygiene standards.</p>
<p>Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about what will happen to our bodies after we die. Perhaps we should. In the end this may be one of our most important last decisions – the implications of which extend to our precious planet.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-americans-today-are-choosing-cremation-heres-why-burials-are-becoming-less-common-186618">Most Americans today are choosing cremation – here's why burials are becoming less common</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Burial land is running low in certain parts of the world. It’s about time we started to consider the environmental cost of our final resting place.
Paola A. Magni, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science, Murdoch University
Edda Guareschi, Adjunct Lecturer in Forensic Sciences, Murdoch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181590
2022-04-28T12:20:54Z
2022-04-28T12:20:54Z
How burying the dead keeps the living human
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460065/original/file-20220427-10052-gtj83c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1020%2C766&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man identified only as Viktor shows his neighbor's grave in Bucha, Ukraine. It was too dangerous to go to the cemetery.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/viktor-who-survived-the-russian-occupation-in-bucha-shows-a-news-photo/1239825447?adppopup=true">Jana Cavojska/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Olena Koval found out that her husband was dead via text message. He was shot by Russian soldiers inside their home in Bucha while she was sheltering nearby, their neighbors told <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/30/devastation-and-loss-bucha-ukraine">Human Rights Watch</a>. In the days that followed, despite the brutal cold and her spinal disability, she made repeated attempts to recover his body but was turned back each time by the soldiers’ threats.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/4/will-the-bucha-massacre-wake-up-the-world">atrocities escalated</a>, Olena fled Bucha to save her remaining family. Before their departure, she left a note with a neighbor that marked where her husband’s body was, hoping someone could give him a burial.</p>
<p>War is synonymous with death, but its emotional toll extends beyond the loss of life. The inability to say farewell to one’s loved ones and lay them to rest can often be just as painful.</p>
<p>Humans have always cared for their dead – so much that archaeologists often consider mortuary rites <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-we-should-bury-the-idea-that-human-rituals-are-unique">among the traits</a> that distinguish <em>Homo sapiens</em> from other species. In other words, it is a fundamental part of being human. </p>
<h2>Paying respect</h2>
<p>Humans’ close relatives also showed concern for the dead. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316780110">Neanderthals</a> practiced burials, and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/150915-humans-death-burial-anthropology-Homo-naledi">other extinct hominids</a> probably did too. Even chimpanzees appear to <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/chimps-grieve-over-dead-relatives">grieve over deceased relatives</a>. But no other species goes to such extraordinary lengths to care for its dead.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://anthropology.uconn.edu/person/dimitris-xygalatas/">an anthropologist</a>, I have spent two decades studying <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/dimitris-xygalatas/ritual/9780316462402/">rituals</a>, particularly those that <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-extreme-rituals-forge-intense-social-bonds">can seem “extreme</a>.” At first glance, these customs seem puzzling: They appear to have no direct benefits but can feel utterly meaningful. A closer look, however, shows that these seemingly senseless acts express deeper, profoundly human needs.</p>
<p>Take funerary rites. There is a practical need to dispose of a dead body, but most burial customs go far beyond that requirement. Among the Toraja people of Indonesia, for example, deceased family members <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/29/764638760/photos-the-dead-live-with-their-loved-ones-on-this-indonesian-island">are kept in their homes</a> for months or even years. During that time, their relatives treat them as if they were still living: They offer them food, change their clothes, and bring them the latest gossip. Even after their funeral, their mummified bodies <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/travel/torajan-death-rituals-indonesia.html">are exhumed</a>, dressed up, and paraded around town on ceremonial occasions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People walk in a long line under a huge red banner along a wooded path." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460063/original/file-20220427-13-92x0gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Residents participate in a funeral procession to honor ancestors in Tana Toraja Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residents-are-seen-pulling-red-cloth-during-the-rambu-solo-news-photo/1131722427?adppopup=true">Hariandi Hafid/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Toraja are not alone. In Madagascar, I have visited communities where people lived in fragile reed huts, at the mercy of frequent deadly cyclones, as the only robust brick-and-mortar buildings in the area were used as tombs. And in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/lost-city-petra">architectural masterpieces</a> carved into the rock <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41622199">by the Nabataeans</a> two millennia ago were resting places for the dead.</p>
<p>Those practices may seem like outliers, but they are not. In all cultures, people clean, protect, embellish and carefully deposit their dead. Muslims <a href="https://www.mfs.asn.au/ghusl.html">wash and shroud</a> the body before interring it. Hindus may <a href="https://www.australiancouncilofhinduclergy.com/funerals.html">bathe it</a> with milk, honey and ghee and adorn it with flowers and essential oils before cremation. Jews <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tahara/">keep watch over the deceased</a> from the time of death until the burial. And many Christians <a href="https://rip.ie/article.php?AID=32">hold wakes</a> at which family members gather to pay tribute to the deceased.</p>
<h2>Creating closure</h2>
<p>Funerary rites are ostensibly about the dead. But their importance lies in <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/14/946402101/psychologist-on-why-funerals-are-fundamental-to-processing-grief">the roles they play for the living</a>: They allow them to grieve, seek comfort, face the reality of death and find the strength to move on. They are deeply human acts, which is why being deprived of them can feel devastating and dehumanizing.</p>
<p>This is what is happening in Ukraine.</p>
<p>In besieged cities, people cannot retrieve the bodies of their loves ones from the streets out of fear of being killed. In other cases, Ukrainian officials have accused the Russian army of burying victims in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/21/new-mass-grave-manhush-near-mariupol/">mass graves</a> to hide war crimes. Even when they are retrieved, many of the corpses have been mutilated, making them <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/kyiv-area-morgues-ukrainian-coroners-war-casualties">difficult to identify</a>. To people who have lost their loved ones, the lack of a proper send-off can feel like a second loss.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a black hat and jacket kneels next to a grave." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C0%2C7258%2C4561&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460057/original/file-20220427-23-oyq9xn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tanya Nedashkivs'ka, 57, mourns the death of her husband at the site where he was buried in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Russia%20Ukraine%20War%20A%20Walk%20Through%20Bucha/83871abfbfa443a9879330e65b3c5524?Query=ukraine%20bury&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=163&currentItemNo=31">AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The need for closure is widely recognized to be indispensable – not only by anthropologists and psychologists, but also first responders, governments and <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/management-of-dead-bodies-after-disasters">international organizations</a>. This is why armies go to great lengths to return the remains of fallen soldiers to their families, <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/military/war/Return-of-remains-from-Korea-brings-back-memories-for-local-families_170384468/">even if that takes decades</a>.</p>
<p>The right to a burial is acknowledged even for one’s foes. The <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docindex/v2_rul_rule115">Geneva Convention</a> stipulates that belligerents must ensure that the bodies of enemies are “honorably interred” and that their graves are respected and “properly maintained and marked so that they may always be found.”</p>
<p>Given the importance of those rites, it is also striking that the Russian defense ministry has reportedly been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/28/kremlin-russia-families-return-dead-bodies-ukraine-volodymyr-zelenskiy">reluctant</a> to bring their own dead back home, because they are concerned with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/08/russia-war-dead-soldiers-bodies/">covering up the scale of the losses</a>. This seeming indifference to the suffering of Russia’s own people and their need for closure may be yet another act of dehumanization.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dimitris Xygalatas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ukrainian families’ anguish at not being able to bury their loved ones underscores a deep human need, an anthropologist writes.
Dimitris Xygalatas, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171896
2022-02-09T14:03:20Z
2022-02-09T14:03:20Z
What archaeology can tell us about the lives of children in England 1,500 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445174/original/file-20220208-15-ymtas7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/archaeology-thin-layer-stripping-stages-excavation-178161950">krugloff/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the collapse of the <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/fall-of-rome-how-why-when-roman-empire-collapse-romulus-augustulus/">Roman Empire</a> in the early fifth century, groups from northwest Europe made their way to British shores. Germanic peoples settled in what is now England between the fifth and seventh centuries AD. </p>
<p>The traditions around death and burial they brought with them provide us with a snapshot of the lives and deaths of people in these communities. Burials can also offer information about a frequently overlooked group: children.</p>
<p>Due to a lack of written records, our knowledge about the people who lived in early medieval England often comes from the excavation of burial sites. Well-known examples include the <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-hoo">Sutton Hoo</a> ship burial in Suffolk and the <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/secrets-revealed-anglo-saxon-burial/">Prittlewell chamber grave</a> in Essex. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Landscape photograph showing burial mounds in grass" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445386/original/file-20220209-21-72jnfs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sutton Hoo burial site, Suffolk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sutton_Hoo_burial_site.jpg">Alex Healing via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These uncovered highly <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo">elaborate artefacts</a>, such as the Sutton Hoo helmet. However, burials like these are rare, and give us a skewed view of history. Very few people were offered such ostentatious funerals.</p>
<p>There are two types of burial from this period. Cremated bone deposits are found in buried pottery urns: the dead were cremated on an open pyre, accompanied by objects and animal offerings. In some cases, additional unburned items, such as bone combs, were added to the urn before burial. </p>
<p>The other type of burial was a more straightforward affair. The deceased was buried in a grave with artefacts of relevance to their identity in life. This is known as “inhumation”. </p>
<h2>Clues to the past</h2>
<p>The objects buried with people provide important clues about their lives. Grave provisions from early medieval burials include jewellery and combs, knives and pottery vessels. They can also contain animal bones belonging to a range of species, such as horses, cattle, pigs, dogs, birds, and bears.</p>
<p>Regardless of the funerary rite bestowed on children, there are similarities in the objects that were bestowed and buried with these individuals. Analyses have shown that infants and children under 12 years of age were less likely to be buried with animal offerings and, where they were, a narrow range of species were gifted to the young individuals. Children were most likely to be gifted sheep or goat, or pig offerings at the funeral.</p>
<p>They were also more likely to be found with a narrower range of artefacts, including beads, rings, combs, knives and spindle whorls, than older members of the community. In addition to the items buried with children, adult males were sometimes found with weapons, such as swords, shields, and spearheads, while adult females were typically buried with jewellery, including different types of brooches. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445380/original/file-20220209-15-1r3ypv1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of an early medieval bead found in graves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anglo-Saxon_glass_bead_(FindID_199455).jpg">The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The more restricted range of objects found with children possibly indicates their different social status, roles within the household, and identity in life. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the cremated remains of infants and children were buried in shorter urns, while their contemporaries from inhumation cemeteries were interred with shorter knives than adolescents and adults. This potentially suggests that people were given longer knives or taller pots as they passed through <a href="https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1080653&recordType=MonographSeries">key stages of life</a>. </p>
<p>Adolescence was a crucial time in a young person’s life as they took on new roles and responsibilities. Some of these roles are likely to have involved the management of livestock and participation in other economic activities, such as crafting.</p>
<p>This would marry up with a law <a href="https://earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/hl/view/#edition/translation-3">written in the seventh century AD</a> which states that individuals over ten years of age were old enough to manage their family’s land and property. Therefore, increased interaction with animals and greater economic contribution may have warranted the endowment of animals or a wider range of objects at the funeral.</p>
<p>Even though children were socially distinct from older individuals, they were clearly cared for. They were included in household burial plots among groups who practised cremation.</p>
<p>Furthermore, when children were sometimes buried alongside adults in what is known as the “multiple burial rite”. The most frequent demographic pairing when this took place was of an infant or child and an adult. But we cannot assume that individuals found in multiple burials were blood relatives. Instead, individuals may have been buried together as they shared social attributes, such as ideological beliefs, or kin ties. </p>
<p>Archaeologist <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Burial-in-Early-Medieval-England-and-Wales/Lucy-Reynolds/p/book/9781902653655">Nick Stoodley has suggested</a> that the caring responsibilities of adults extended to the afterlife. This could explain why this demographic pairing is most common.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Even though researchers are starting to pay more attention to children from early medieval contexts, the development of osteological techniques – which are used to analyse skeletal remains – and advances in analytical methods will allow us to learn more about the youngest members of early medieval society. </p>
<p>Organisations such as The Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past <a href="https://sscip.org.uk/">(SSCIP)</a> champion research that focuses specifically on children in the past, and the important roles they played in society. </p>
<p>The promotion of archaeological research focused on children will not only lead to a more rounded understanding of children from early medieval England, but also of young people from other points in history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Squires does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The objects buried with people provide important clues about their lives.
Kirsty Squires, Associate Professor of Bioarchaeology, Staffordshire University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164342
2021-08-06T15:32:53Z
2021-08-06T15:32:53Z
Funerals will hit 100 million a year by 2060 – here’s how to make them more sustainable
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414371/original/file-20210803-13-zqcl22.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3872%2C2590&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cemeteries across the world, particularly in cities, are dealing with serious issues of overcrowding.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GravesOcoCemCV2.JPG">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the world, resting places for the dearly departed are running out of space: and it’s spelling bad news for the environment.</p>
<p>In many countries, splashing the cash to secure a traditional grave in commercial cemeteries and columbaria (urn storage buildings) can be something of a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/hongkong-death-idUSL3N0IC2D020140603">status symbol</a>, not least because of the increasingly limited real estate available for grave sites. </p>
<p>It is satisfying to tut over the wastefulness of <a href="https://www.messynessychic.com/2016/04/05/beverley-hills-of-the-dead-luxury-tombs-complete-with-kitchens-air-conditioning/">“necro-bling”</a> in wealthy communities worldwide, but the commercialisation of funeral services forces us to contemplate a much bigger issue about how much of the planet’s finite resources we should dedicate to people who are dead. </p>
<p>It has been estimated that the world will accommodate 80 million deaths a year by 2040, rising to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/births-and-deaths-projected-to-2100?country=%7EOWID_WRL">102 million by 2060</a>. Each dead body will be cremated or placed in the ground or in a vault until decomposition has reduced the body to skeletal fragments. These transitions take up energy, space, time and material. </p>
<p>The pandemic has given global audiences greater familiarity with images of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-56897970">funeral pyres</a> in countries like India, requiring massive consumption of wood and charcoal. But many developed countries are also reliant on a finite resource – in this case, natural gas – to cremate bodies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People sit and stand around a burning pyre" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414377/original/file-20210803-23-1loy81s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Hindu cremation ceremony at Pashputhinath Ghat, one of the holiest sites in Nepali Hinduism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinzac/7226162840">Gavin Golden/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Simply burying bodies in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jpln.201600351">aerated soil</a> can cause decomposition relatively quickly, but cemeteries are now often constructed using pre-cast concrete vaults and reusing graves is not common across countries including the US, UK and Australia. In these places, cemetery space would have to expand indefinitely. </p>
<p>However, the dead are not just matter requiring disposal. Our level of humanity is frequently judged by the care we afford <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2020.1776791">mortal remains</a>.</p>
<p>Across the globe, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52241221">poorly-considered responses</a> to those who have died from COVID-19 – such as mass burials without appropriate funeral rites – has shown that delivering inadequate levels of care and respect to the dead can inflict emotional damage on the living. </p>
<p>Indeed, atrocities often consist of deliberately disregarding the bodies of subjugated people. <a href="http://auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-and-shoah/the-extermination-procedure-in-the-gas-chambers">Mass cremations</a> during the Holocaust framed the dead as meaningless material. Conflict across parts of Africa, South America and the Middle East has created a legacy of families seeking to find and reclaim their dead from mass <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IQ/UNAMI_Report_on_Mass_Graves4Nov2018_EN.pdf">burial pits</a>. </p>
<p>The way we deal with human remains should be guided by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2020.1776791">social justice</a>, and this means balancing three major principles. </p>
<h2>Sustainability</h2>
<p>First, any burial system should aim for minimal environmental impact. Poorly functioning cemeteries and crematoria can be serious pollutants, generating greenhouse gases and heavy metal deposits that are prone to accumulating in <a href="https://ncceh.ca/documents/field-inquiry/crematoria-emissions-and-air-quality-impacts">human tissue</a>. There is no commonly accepted framework for measuring the <a href="http://www.greenergoodbyes.co.uk/two/">carbon cost</a> of funeral activities, and no clear pathway to reducing that cost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A church with crematorium behind, out of which smoke is issuing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414770/original/file-20210805-17-14sio7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Regulation of crematorium emissions can be poor in some countries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glyntaff_Crematorium_-_geograph.org.uk_-_622694.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, there should be acknowledgement that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8470.00061">deathscapes</a> – the mature cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds that grace our cities with patches of green – are contributing substantially to <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-captured-co-in-everyday-products-could-help-fight-climate-change-but-will-consumers-want-them-158683">carbon capture</a>. </p>
<p>With the right kind of management to encourage <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235198941930174X">habitat diversity</a>, these locations can be serene, highly restorative places for quiet contemplation and engagement with nature. </p>
<p>Effort has been directed towards new technology and design solutions, including the development of <a href="https://www.funeralguide.co.uk/help-resources/arranging-a-funeral/funeral-guides/a-guide-to-water-cremation#:%7E:text=Water%20cremation%20is%20also%20known,the%20liquid%20that%20is%20produced.">“green cremation”</a> which breaks bodies down using alkaline hydrolysis. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/smarter-living/green-funeral-burial-environment.html">“Green burial”</a> has also become a worldwide phenomenon, offering places for interment where a tree can be planted on the grave. This option reduces the resources needed to mine and transport stone from one part of the world to another to create a memorial. However, greener solutions will make a limited contribution to sustainability if they cannot accommodate <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e30b16e2-9604-11ea-899a-f62a20d54625">mega city</a> death tolls that reach tens of thousands every year. </p>
<h2>Affordability</h2>
<p>Second, any changes to the funeral process must be affordable. Every family – whatever their income – should be able to show respect to their loved ones.</p>
<p>Some countries include access to a free burial or cremation as part of local taxation. It might even be appropriate to consider decent treatment of the dead as a <a href="https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/rights-and-obligations-human-remains-and-burial">citizen right</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graves crowd together in a cemetery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414378/original/file-20210803-25-472ap0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crowded cemeteries are often the result of historical injustices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousexpeditions/1277019461">Curious Expeditions/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cultural sensitivity</h2>
<p>Third, any initiative delivering environmentally beneficial and affordable disposal of bodies must be sensitive to cultural differences in how people treat their dead. </p>
<p>Some funeral practices, which are defended on theological grounds, are <a href="https://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/PDFFiles/Funerals,-Cremations--Bereavement/Environmental-Impact-of-a-Funeral.pdf">unsustainable</a> or can cause significant environmental damage. But there may well be room to offer sensitive compromise. For example, where grave reuse is not acceptable, some form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/lack-of-burial-space-is-changing-age-old-funeral-practices-and-in-japan-tree-burials-are-gaining-in-popularity-161323">green burial</a> might be a more sustainable option compared to the creation of further acres of concrete or stone. </p>
<p>Global population growth is driving disastrous levels of climate change. All aspects of life – and death – must adjust to lower levels of consumption. The wealthy dead cannot take more than their fair share.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Rugg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Death is a part of life: but environmentally harmful burial practices, overcrowded cemeteries and unaffordable funerals are denying many the right to a good death.
Julie Rugg, Senior Research Fellow, University of York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161253
2021-05-21T12:22:05Z
2021-05-21T12:22:05Z
Why so many Americans are struggling to feed themselves
<p><em>This is a transcript of episode 16 of The Conversation Weekly podcast <a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/161202/edit">The racial hunger gap in American cities and what do about it</a>. In this episode, we look at some of the reasons behind racial disparities in U.S. food insecurity and hear from experts with their suggested solutions. And the discovery of the bones of a small child, carefully buried in Kenya 78,000 years ago, gives us a peek into the minds of ancient humans.</em></p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/60a60b2a314e520012717ffc?cover=true" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay" width="100%" height="110"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Dan Merino: Hello and welcome to The Conversation Weekly.</p>
<p>Gemma Ware: In this week’s episode, why so many Americans are struggling to feed themselves. </p>
<p>Craig Gundersen: Due to COVID, what we’re projecting is that between 40 and 45 million Americans are food insecure. </p>
<p>Julian Agyeman: We cannot divorce hunger in the U.S. from racist urban planning. </p>
<p>Dan: And the discovery of the bones of a small child, carefully buried in Kenya 78,000 years ago. </p>
<p>María Martinón-Torres: This is the earliest burial known so far in Africa. </p>
<p>Dan: I’m Dan Merino in San Francisco</p>
<p>Gemma: And I’m Gemma Ware in London, and you’re listening to The Conversation Weekly, the world explained by experts.</p>
<p>Dan: For the past few months my colleagues here in the U.S. have been working <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/food-and-poverty-99235">on a series</a> about why so many people struggle to provide nutritious meals for themselves and their families.</p>
<p>Gemma: Decades of research have shown that improving food security is a no-brainer. People who don’t get the food they need have more problems with depression and other mental health issues. Seniors have lower nutrient intakes, and children have higher rates of anaemia.</p>
<p>Dan: All this results in higher healthcare costs – a lot of which is put onto the government health insurance programmes, such as Medicare. </p>
<p>Gemma: A household is defined as food insecure if at some point in the past year it didn’t have enough resources to have enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle for its family.</p>
<p>Gemma: There’d been a dramatic increase in U.S. food insecurity after the great recession of 2008-9. </p>
<p>Even after the economy began to recover, food insecurity rates remained stubbornly high until about 2014.</p>
<p>Dan: But the situation began to improve then. And by the time the pandemic hit, fewer people were living in food insecurity than at any point since the U.S. began measuring it in 1996.</p>
<p>Gemma: But there were big racial disparities. In 2019, the official food insecurity rate for Black people was 19% – more than twice as high as it was for white people at just under <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/99282/err-275.pdf">8%</a>. And it was just under 16% for Hispanic people.</p>
<p>Gemma: To find out why, and what’s been going on during the pandemic, we’ve talked to three experts who study food insecurity and food justice in the U.S. This is a story about who has access to food. About the legacy of racist urban planning in US cities. And about money – and what it would actually cost the federal government to eradicate food insecurity in one of the world’s richest countries.</p>
<p>Gemma: In the early months of the pandemic, when the economy crashed and unemployment soared, millions of Americans turned to charitable organisations to help put food on their tables.</p>
<p>Caitlin: In 2020, it was like this muscle that really got flexed where these food justice organizations and mutual aid networks were really rising to the occasion.</p>
<p>Gemma: This is Caitlin Caspi. She’s an associate professor in the department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut, UConn. </p>
<p>Caitlin: Just recently that I did a pandemic move from the University of Minnesota, to UConn where I’m also working at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. And I’m the director of food security initiatives there.</p>
<p>Gemma: In March and April 2020, Caitlin says people mobilised quickly at a local level. </p>
<p>Caitlin: It looked really different, in different communities. And so in some communities you saw that the school buses were being re-purposed to deliver food. Many other communities, parking lots or, or sports fields were being re-purposed as mass food distribution sites. In some places you even had people getting screened for food insecurity as they were getting a COVID test and they could get food right there. </p>
<p>Gemma: Underneath this, another layer of grassroots support and mutual aid developed. Friends and neighbours helped each other out. Food justice organizations stepped in and people began using community gardens to grow food. The emergency was acute and the response was immense. But it all raises bigger questions – about why so many people are struggling to feed themselves in the U.S. and who they are. </p>
<p>To find out more I called up one of the U.S.’s leading experts on food insecurity. </p>
<p>Craig Gundersen: My name is Craig Gunderson. I’m the ACES distinguished professor in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois and I do research on the causes and consequences of food insecurity and on the evaluation of food assistance programs with an emphasis in the largest food assistance program, SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program. </p>
<p>Gemma: Official statistics on food insecurity during the pandemic are yet to be published, Craig and his colleagues have been tracking what’s been going on. Remember, before the pandemic, food insecurity rates had been at an all time low.</p>
<p>Craig: In 2019, to be more precise about this, there was about 35 million Americans who were food insecure. Now due to COVID, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandemic-recession-has-pushed-a-further-9-8-million-americans-into-food-insecurity-157016">what we’re projecting is that they’ll probably be an increase in food insecurity.</a> So we anticipate that probably about this has risen to about, between 40 and 45 million Americans are food insecure.</p>
<p>Gemma: 10.9% of Americans didn’t have enough food in 2019. Craig’s projections are that this rose to 13.9% in 2020, and will fall slightly to 12.9% in 2021. This is definitely a worrying increase, but Craig says that the general impression that food insecurity rates would sky rocket during the pandemic, just hasn’t happened. </p>
<p>Craig: We just really didn’t see that and it’s for three main reasons. The first is that the U.S. government, the Trump administration, the Congress put together the stimulus package, which dramatically raised a lot of people’s income, especially for poor households. In some sense, they actually had more money after COVID than they did before COVID, which allowed them to purchase more food than they otherwise would. </p>
<p>A second reason is that, unemployment benefits were being paid to people who are unemployed. And the reality is these unemployment benefits were higher than what they had when they were working and therefore that also give them more money to spend on food. A third and something that’s oftentimes overlooked, is the fact that there wasn’t any sort of rapid pricing increase. The agricultural supply chain in the United States is just remarkably vibrant. And so, because of this, we didn’t see increases in food prices. We didn’t see shortages at our are food stores and all these other things. So really it was, it was pretty amazing that things weren’t worse during COVID.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pandemic-recession-has-pushed-a-further-9-8-million-americans-into-food-insecurity-157016">The pandemic recession has pushed a further 9.8 million Americans into food insecurity</a>
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<p>Gemma: But dig down deeper and there’s a worrying trend. Craig projects that the rate of food insecurity for Black Americans will fall slower than that for white Americans this year. This feeds into some of his wider research on racial disparities in food insecurity. </p>
<p>Craig: I think probably the two groups that we see the most concern are Black persons and American Indians. So let me first begin with American Indians. Rates of food insecurity amongst American Indians have remained stubbornly high since we began measuring food insecurity. </p>
<p>Gemma: The official figures for indigenous communities can be difficult to unpick because of the way statistics are collected, but <a href="https://www.networkforphl.org/news-insights/addressing-native-american-food-insecurity-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-food-distribution-programs-on-indian-reservations/">one recent study</a> found the rate of food insecurity among American Indians and Alaskan Natives averaged 25% between 2000 and 2010. </p>
<p>Craig: America has something called <a href="https://map.feedingamerica.org/">Map the Meal Gap</a>, which provides county-level estimates of food insecurity. And what you see is like these pockets in the United States, where overall you have low rates of food insecurity, then you have these areas with really high rates of food experience. Those are American Indian reservations. </p>
<p>Gemma: In Craig’s analysis, even after controlling for income and a host of other factors, Native Americans still have higher rates of food insecurity. </p>
<p>Craig: I think a lot of this probably comes down to location issues. Oftentimes American Indians are living in areas where there aren’t many jobs in those areas. There’s unlikely to be jobs in the near future. These are areas that have been poor for decades</p>
<p>Gemma: The other group with high levels of food insecurity are Black Americans. </p>
<p>Craig: What we see is the main story about Black persons in the United States is incredibly high rates of food insecurity in the upper Midwest, like in the Chicago, the Milwaukee, the Minneapolis, the Detroit, and relatively lower, much lower rates of food insecurity in the South in Atlanta, in Charlotte and Birmingham and all these other cities that are in the South. So in other words is that it’s really a story, a tale of two different situations. These northern cities have long histories of really serious segregation. And you just don’t see that in southern cities, you just don’t see these patterns of racial segregation that you see in Northern cities. So I think that that’s has a lot to do with it. Is that just that, you know, these areas are cut off from jobs, cut off from economic opportunities.</p>
<p>But another component of this is that in the United States, of course, the South is the booming area. I mean, if you see it in terms of growth patterns, the South is growing, this is where the future of our country is in the South. It’s not in the North.</p>
<p>And if you actually look at it at even a more granular level at the zip code level, you really see these sharp, sharp, just racial disparities that exist in a lot of Northern cities. Areas that are predominantly white, have really low rates of food insecurity in these cities. Areas that are predominantly Black, have really, really high rates of food insecurity. </p>
<p>Gemma: To find out more about the role racial segregation of American cities plays in access to food today, I called up Julian Agyeman. </p>
<p>Julian: I’m a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University in the Boston metro area. My interest is in what I call just sustainability is how do we move towards improving people’s quality of life, now and into the future. </p>
<p>Gemma: Julian says its impossible to talk about food access in US cities without understanding the legacy of racist urban planning policies.</p>
<p>Julian: Urban planning in the U.S. is the spatial toolkit of white supremacy. The way our cities are laid out is no accident, it’s by design. And it has led to deeply segregated communities and really has inscribed areas of deep poverty and lack of access to opportunity. We cannot divorce hunger in the U.S. from racist, urban planning, certainly in our cities.</p>
<p>Gemma: Can you talk us through, where would you start telling the story of how cities became segregated through urban planning?</p>
<p>Julian: Well, let me illustrate through one particular city, that’s in the focus of our minds at the moment <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-planning-as-a-tool-of-white-supremacy-the-other-lesson-from-minneapolis-142249">and that’s Minneapolis</a>.</p>
<p>Pre-1900, there was a small African-American population in the city, but it was fairly well distributed. And then around the turn of the century, 1900-1910, racist covenants started to appear. These covenants were something along the lines of “this property shall not be rented or sold to, anybody other than in the caucasian race.” Horrifically racist terms were used to describe who was not allowed to rent or buy these homes. By about 1930, this action alone had created a concentration of African-Americans in what is now North Minneapolis, and that population still exists.</p>
<p>Now you have to add onto this as well that in many U.S. cities, racist zoning was allowed. This was zoning for land use based on race. It was struck down by the Supreme Court of the U.S. in 1917, but it was then replaced, by what’s called single-family or large-lot zoning. Zoning on the basis of a large lot, an expensive property that basically many low-income and minority, especially African-Americans would not be able to afford. So this is called exclusionary zoning. It excluded people. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-planning-as-a-tool-of-white-supremacy-the-other-lesson-from-minneapolis-142249">Urban planning as a tool of white supremacy – the other lesson from Minneapolis</a>
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<p>Then there was a period of redlining in the 40s and 50s when government loans, private sector loans were not permitted in certain neighborhoods that were redlined on a map, literally, redlined as hazardous. And of course these were racially derived red lines, basically. There was also a parallel process called yellow lining to stop Chinese and people from Asia getting into these areas. The cumulative effect of these processes is racial segregation. And only one nation on earth has done it better than the U.S. and that was apartheid South Africa. </p>
<p>Gemma: So these urban urban planning policies influenced the way cities were designed, but how do they practically influence hunger and how Black Americans get access to food in the 21st century? </p>
<p>Julian: So the legacy of these racist planning policies is that there are still neighborhoods, which have been characterized as food deserts or food swamps. There is some contestation over these terms because the terms, food desert, food swamp, almost implies a natural occurrence. Many critics prefer the term food apartheid, which really I think gets to the racialized nature of these areas. </p>
<p>So if you imagine all of those city planning policies that I mentioned, they concentrate poverty. The poverty is reflected in economic activity in the neighborhood, which is generally lower, and food availability in terms of nutritious food at a reasonable price, culturally relevant foods is much lower in these neighborhoods. Most US cities have food desert areas that can be overlaid with these formerly redlined neighborhoods, these areas where covenants were prevalent. It’s a cumulative effect. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-urban-planning-and-housing-policy-helped-create-food-apartheid-in-us-cities-154433">How urban planning and housing policy helped create 'food apartheid' in US cities</a>
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<p>Gemma: These terms, food desert, food swamp, food apartheid, are contested among researchers. Craig Gundersen told me he avoids using them. </p>
<p>Craig: Empirically is it’s been shown again and again and again and again, that food deserts have no relationship at all to food insecurity. So therefore, even to talk about food deserts in the same context of food insecurity is just misguided. I always find it really insulting to people who live in those areas. It’s like they, they take pride in their areas and it’s the same as also another really annoying term, food swamps, where you’re insulting people who live in these areas.</p>
<p>I will say one thing though – but this doesn’t mean that food access is not an issue. And I think that it is very select cases. So for example, coming back to American Indians, for those who are living on reservations, there could be not a food store nearby at all. </p>
<p>Gemma: Often he says this is not about the proximity somebody lives to a store, but about their ability to get one. Someone may have a physical disability, or face mental health challenges that make it difficult for them to manage a short trip, or an older person may feel uneasy about leaving their house. </p>
<p>Craig: Far and away, the leading indicator food and leading predictor of food insecurity in our country is disability status. Persons with mental health disabilities and physical disabilities, whatever their income is – much, much higher rates of food insecurity than persons without disabilities.</p>
<p>Gemma: For Julian Agyeman, these issues about access have an extra dimension for those living in areas that were once racially segregated. </p>
<p>Julian: We can’t just think of poverty as being kind of a monolithic thing. Poverty means lack of access to get on a bus or to get to places where, fresh, wholesome, nutritious and affordable food is available. So these neighborhoods are lacking in so many different ways, and you know, food access is just one of those. </p>
<p>Gemma: To create a more just food system and to unpick the racist legacies that still haunt U.S. cities, he believes action needs to come from a local level.</p>
<p>Julian: We need to start with an analysis that really nails the problem. What’s impressed me most is a plan that I’ve seen for food justice in Boston, which is being proposed by mayoral candidate, Michelle Wu. </p>
<p>Gemma: Wu is one of six candidates, all people of color, running in Boston’s mayoral elections this November. Julian and some of his students at Tufts have analysed her plan and made some suggested improvements, which he says have been incorporated by Wu’s team. </p>
<p>Julian: She starts the plan by saying food justice is racial justice. We need to de-center whiteness and white supremacy from local food systems. Period. If we start from that position, from that recognition of the problem, then we can start to build. </p>
<p>Gemma: In Minneapolis, Julian says a plan called Minneapolis 2040 is introducing policies to eliminate some of these racist injustices in urban planning. </p>
<p>Julian: Remember, 70% of the land area of Minneapolis was zoned for single families
and it’s been replaced in Minneapolis with, the ability now for developers to build duplexes and triplexes on formerly single family zoned land. So we need, removal of exclusionary zoning; including inclusionary zoning, which is equivalent to more affordable housing; development of community land trusts, which can take land for the benefit of communities for affordable housing, for maker spaces, for community programs and projects.</p>
<p>Gemma: On top of this, he says that local food justice programmes or urban agriculture projects on community land must be see as an opportunity to build community, not just provide food. </p>
<p>Julian: There’s plenty of evidence that the major contributor in local environments to community power-building is community projects that allow people to work together, in terms of a co-op, in spaces that become spaces of engagement. People from the community, get to meet each other across racial and ethnic difference.</p>
<p>I think also we need to think about urban agriculture as part of a series of opportunities for local economic development. And we’ve got plenty of examples again, in the Boston area, where local urban farms are working together with local restaurants or local food co-ops to diversify the food-scape, if you like, of the local neighborhood. </p>
<p>Gemma: Julian is optimistic about projects like this and he’s hopeful about the future. Still, in the meantime, many people need help, urgently. And some turn to food pantries. Here’s Caitlin Caspi again, whose research focuses on these pantries. </p>
<p>Caitlin: Food pantries are often located in areas with a high proportion of, um, of Black and Hispanic residents.</p>
<p>Gemma: These food pantries or food banks are part of a network of charitable food organisations across the U.S. – they get food via donations or directly from big supermarkets. She says the people who use them come from all walks of life. </p>
<p>Caitlin: All racial, ethnic backgrounds. People who are young and old. So national data would tell us that households with children and female-headed households and non-Hispanic Black households have higher rates of food insecurity and they’re also using the charitable food assistance system with greater frequency. </p>
<p>Gemma: For over 50 years, the U.S. has had the federal SNAP programme. Today this gives vulnerable Americans money to buy get the food they need via an electronic card that they can use to shop in their local store. The level of support varies according to a household’s income – and it’s been increased during the pandemic. But for a number of different reasons, some households still don’t get enough from SNAP to cover their needs. </p>
<p>Caitlin: In our research, we found that about half of the people who are visiting food pantries are also using SNAP. </p>
<p>Gemma: These food pantries also help people who fall outside of SNAP altogether, because their income might be just over the threshold. </p>
<p>Caitlin: You might have people who do have a stable job or they make a decent wage, or they might even be considered middle class. But because they have really high costs of, for example, housing or childcare or medical costs, it’s still hard for them to get food on the table. </p>
<p>Gemma: Others may unable to get help from federal food assistance programs for other reasons, for example because they might be undocumented. </p>
<p>Caitlin: People might not participate because of their legal status, or because of stigma. Or because they don’t meet work requirements, or other cutoffs for these food assistance programs. Or because they’re just facing an acute crisis and it takes some time to sign-up to get those benefits.</p>
<p>Gemma: The food pantry system wasn’t meant to be helping all these people. Caitlin says it was set up as a stop-gap measure, half a century ago. Now, her research is showing just how crucial food pantries are in people’s lives.</p>
<p>Caitlin: We’ve pretty extensively surveyed Minnesotans and found that among people using food pantries, they’re really seeing it as consistent source of a lot of their food. One statistic that has really been surprising and replicated in almost every time we ask this question, we find that about half of clients say they’re getting half or more of their total food from the food pantry. And people are also visiting food pantries and for long periods of time, they’re going as often as they’re allowed, which is usually about once a month and they’re going for a period of a year or more. </p>
<p>Gemma: So what’s the solution to stop people needing to turn to food pantries all together? For Caitlin, part of the answer is improving the social safety net in the longer term.</p>
<p>This is what Craig Gundersen told me too. While he thought that the increases made to SNAP during the pandemic, and extra food support for children this summer, were a good idea, this shouldn’t just be a temporary increase. </p>
<p>Craig: Food insecurity is not a COVID issue at all. If we think that increasing benefit levels is a good idea during COVID, it’s a good idea at any time.</p>
<p>Gemma: Craig is a big advocate of SNAP. It works, he says. </p>
<p>Craig: Study after study, after study, has demonstrated that households that are on SNAP compared to eligible nonparticipants that those households on SNAP are much less likely to be food insecure after controlling for different factors. </p>
<p>Gemma: He recently wrote a piece for The Conversation arguing that it would be relatively simple for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biden-administration-can-eliminate-food-insecurity-in-the-united-states-heres-how-153029">Biden administration to eliminate food insecurity altogether</a> – using SNAP. It just requires more money. </p>
<p>Craig: If we increase SNAP benefit levels by about on average about US$40 per week this would lead to about a 60% decline in food insecurity among SNAP recipients.
A second thing is, is that by expanding the SNAP eligibility threshold so more of those households can get into the program is that they’ll also be removed from food insecurity. Currently if you make less than US$30,000 for a family of four is in general, you’ll be eligible for SNAP. What we’re proposing is that for families making up to US$45,000 a year is that they would be eligible for SNAP. And for that it’s about a 70% decline if it was expanded to these new groups.</p>
<p>Gemma: Craig said this would cost an extra US$70 billion a year. To put that in perspective, the total SNAP expenditure in 2020 was US$79.2 billion.</p>
<p>Craig: For me, at least that’s inexpensive. OK. I mean, compare it to what we spend, like, I mean, the most recent stimulus from the Trump administration or from the Biden administration. The stimulus package is like US$5 trillion. </p>
<p>Gemma: And this should be a priority he says. </p>
<p>Craig: The mere fact that in a country with the wealth of the United States, that children are going to bed hungry or seniors don’t know where their next meal is coming from, that in above itself is of concern.</p>
<p>Dan: You can read more stories in that series that we’ve been doing on U.S, food insecurity, including stories by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julian-agyeman-147077">Julian Agyeman</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/craig-gundersen-1195748">Craig Gundersen</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/caitlin-caspi-1193676">Caitlin Caspi</a> by clicking on the link in the show notes. </p>
<p>Gemma: Yeah and Caitlin has some new research coming out in a few weeks about how to make visits to food banks more healthy and more dignified, so do keep an eye out for that on The Conversation too.</p>
<p>Dan: OK. Now it’s time to get your pickax and archeological toolkit out. Gemma, do you have yours read?</p>
<p>Gemma: Sadly not, but if I did have one where would I be taking it?</p>
<p>Dan: We’re going to a dig site called <a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/1466873/miller-panga-ya-saidi-cave">Panga ya Saidi</a> in south-eastern Kenya. Paleoanthropologists working there recently spotted a couple of small teeth. These belong to a child who lived nearly 80,000 years ago. Researchers had found the oldest burial ever discovered in Africa and by studying the child buried there, they found clues to what the world was like for our ancient ancestors. </p>
<p>Maria: My name is María Martinón-Torres. I am a paleoanthropologist, and currently I am the director of the National Research Center on Human Evolution, the CENIEH, in Spain.</p>
<p>So paleonathroplogy is the study of past human species. Now we are the only human species on earth, but if we look back, we could see that during the last six million years of history and evolution, there were many other hominid species and ancestors that were also like us looking for a way to survive and adapting to a changing landscape, to the different challenges that life is offering them. </p>
<p>And this is what we do. We try to reconstruct our family tree. We try to investigate how these ancestors were. How they look like, how they were adapted to the landscape, to the interaction with other living creatures. And this is our interest in humans, but really going very far in the past. </p>
<p>Dan: You’re obviously not interviewing these people. You’re not studying their books, their literature, their movies. So how do you do this? </p>
<p>Maria: Well, one of the best tools we really have to investigate our past is through the analysis of the fossil remains we have of this species. This is a bit like the CSI. We try to investigate. We want to make them talk because they don’t really participate and they don’t collaborate that much. We have to look for our own ways to make the dead speak. </p>
<p>And for that, we have science, we have techniques. We have to use our creativity and imagination to try to extract as much information we can about those remains, who they belong to and what happened to them. So we really have to reconstruct the whole sequence of events that led that body you find to be there in that place in that a specific way. You’re finding it in in an archaeological excavation, for example. </p>
<p>Dan: This is a new finding you guys just published. Can you describe what it was generally?</p>
<p>Maria: We are talking about research that is the result of a very large collaboration of more than 30 institutions and researchers from all over the world led by the Max Planck Institute in Jena for the science of human history and the
National Museums of Kenya and also the CENIEH here in Spain. What we discovered indeed was the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03457-8">earliest human burial is known in Africa.</a></p>
<p>Dan: Where in Africa is this?</p>
<p>Maria: Panga ya Saidi is a cave site located in the upland coast of Kenya. It is an extraordinarily beautiful site. We are talking about a cave with a high shelter where archaeologists have been recovering very rich findings related with all this symbolic explosion of behavior of our species, for a very long sequence. So we are talking of a community, probably of hunter gatherers that were living in the tropical forest, that were good hunters. </p>
<p>We have remains of the animals they hunt. We have antelopes. We have also, for example, exploitation of shells and mollusks. So it is a population that was well adapted at that time. And this site in particular is a residential site. That means that these people were living in this cave. </p>
<p>Dan: So you’ve got this fairly complex community. What was this clue that led to unburying these bone remains?</p>
<p>Maria: At the moment in the side, they have excavated a trench, a narrow trench of a few meters by a few meters. And in that trench that at the moment has reached something like about three meters below the actual floor of the cave, they found in 2013, like in the vertical wall, an undulation of a layer. They saw something funny, like a change of texture, of color in the soil. And in 2017, they really reached to the extension of this layer and they were identifying something like a pit that was filled with a sediment that was different in color and texture to the rest of the sediment from that layer.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398833/original/file-20210505-21-rfieki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An artist’s impression of Mtoto’s burial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fernando Fueyo</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>And inside they were seeing like several bones, but when they weren’t trying to recover, they were so brittle that they literally disintegrate. And the more we try, it’s the worst. So, these people wisely decide that instead of keep trying, it should be better to try to really plaster and recover the whole amount of sediment containing those bones and bring them to the labs where you have like more sophisticated tools and you can approach this problem, let’s say, with more delicacy or with more care. And in this case, they brought it first to the National Museums of Kenya, where they tried to do this preliminary initial excavation. </p>
<p>Dan: How big was this block of earth that they plastered together? We’re talking like 10 foot by 10 foot?</p>
<p>Maria: No, it was not that big. Indeed we could say that the plaster could be something like, I would say half meter, 50 by 40 centimetres. Not that big. </p>
<p>So when they start this initial excavation, they remove the plaster, they see these two teeth on surface that looked like, well, maybe human, maybe hominid, perhaps a monkey. And then in the other side of the block, when you turn it, you see something like the shadow of a spine. It is again, the texture is so fragile that it’s not clear what they really have, but it seems to be something small. </p>
<p>Dan: And that’s where they called you, right? </p>
<p>Maria Yes. I was very lucky to be called. It’s one of these days that I’m so happy that I decided to specialize in teeth. You know, sometimes people think that specializing in skulls is more cool because they are easier to see or they are more impressive. But I will say that the teeth indeed is the jewellery of the crown, because in such a small space you have a lot of information. In this case information enough to see and say that we didn’t know what was inside that block, but that at least in the surface, those teeth were human. </p>
<p>Dan: You’ve identified these teeth as human teeth. So what happens from here? </p>
<p>Maria: This is the moment when I suggest that we could bring this to the conservation and restoration labs here, to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena in Germany, because we really could combine our classic manual excavation of this block, trying to get the closest that we can to the bone and removing the sediment, but using also what we call this virtual excavation. And the virtual excavation means that we are using imaging techniques. Like you could have, for example, the CT scan with a hospital with a much higher resolution that allows you to really go through any element and see what is in the inside.</p>
<p>And somehow depending on the different density of the different elements, you can visually identify them and virtually extract them and reconstruct them in a 3D manner. So this is what we have been doing for more than one year, trying to excavate it manually, but also combining it with the scanning to try to understand what was that sediment block containing. </p>
<p>Dan: What did you guys see when you started using these excavation techniques, but both manual and digital, at your institute? </p>
<p>Maria: This has been, I would say a year of surprise by surprise. And I think that’s the beauty of science. So that thing that start by being only a sediment block with some possible hominid remains on top, we start cleaning here at the lab and we start scanning and we see that inside what we have there is a partial skeleton, articulated. That means that everything is in place, that each bone is connected to the right one in our body. It’s not displaced. Then we see the body of a child because of the estimation of the age through the dental analysis. We can say there was a child that died not more than 2.5 or three years old.</p>
<p>Dan: What is the story here? </p>
<p>Maria: Yeah, first of all, we said, we have a body. Yeah. And we have a complete body. And when we made the 3D reconstruction of that body will realize that that body was laid in that place in a very specific position. And when you really throw a body in a hollow, or if someone falls or something happens, you don’t reach this lateral position lying in your side and this almost fetal position. So you realize that there is an intention behind, and that that body was covered. How can we know that it was covered with sediment and soil? Because we have analyzed the soil inside the pit, and we see that it’s different in composition to the soil and the sediment you have in the layer where the cavity was dug. </p>
<p>And also geo-chemically different sand that probably was scooped from the floor of the cave somewhere else to cover the body. </p>
<p>Dan: This is not the earliest burial of any hominin. Correct? There have been other findings prior to this?</p>
<p>Maria: This is the earliest burial known so far in Africa. Indeed, outside Africa, and this is quite intriguing in particularly in the Levant. We have earlier evidences of burials associated to <em>Homo sapiens</em>, but also to Neanderthals. Establishing that type of connection with the dead is one of the most human characteristics somehow we have. </p>
<p>You know, humans are a species that live continuously with the notion of death. Very early, we know we are going to die and we live with it. We try to tame death. To domesticate it, to delay, to control, to fight back, to change it, to prolong. So this is what we spend, I would say, more energy in. And once we have to accept that death happens, then we look for ways to prolong the presence of those who die with us. And we start doing things and rituals and ways of keeping connected to them to not really let them go. </p>
<p>We know our time here in this physical world is limited and maybe this awareness that is limited make us create this whole world to extend it in the symbolic world. And it’s important to see that this is not something that has been there always. We really have to trace in which moment in our life we start doing things like these. </p>
<p>Dan: And when you say in our lives, you mean human evolutionary past? </p>
<p>Maria: Exactly. It’s like, well, we are one of the many hominin species that we have left behind, you know. It is quite particular that we think we are unique and we are the only ones, because it’s quite unusual, indeed, that we are the only ones of our kind left on the surface of earth. It has not been always like this.</p>
<p>There was a time we were also coexisting with Neanderthals, which were also an intelligent and caring species that show compassion and bury their dead. So not all the species were the same and not all the species were doing the same. And in the case of our species, <em>Homo sapiens</em> and Neanderthals, both of them have shown evidence of living in this physical world, but also in the symbolic world. </p>
<p>But before that, the evidences are not that clear. So it is interesting to know when this type of features that we recognize ourselves so much appear, you know. And in this case, we are really tracing the root, the very first evidences of something that now we can consider that it is so normal, yeah, to treat the dead with the delicacy and tenderness that we do with humans that are alive. I think that’s the special thing about paleoanthropology and paleontology.</p>
<p>Dan: So what’s next for you, Maria? Is your colleagues going to go look for more burial sites near that cave? Or is there more analysis to be done on the sediment block?</p>
<p>Maria: So this opens new possibilities we should be exploring. So it could be OK, perhaps we need to excavate more in Africa to find these type of evidences. It could be also that the behavior, the funerary behavior of populations living in Africa and outside Africa was different and also leaves different archeological traces. Some of them may not be visible, for example, we could think of some type of symbolic behaviors that can not be always archaeologically visible, like singing or dancing, for example. We really look at something that I would say that practices like burials are quite convenient for an archaeologist because the practice itself is protecting the evidence. So in that sense, we are more prone to find it, but not always things live an archaeological trace.</p>
<p>Dan: Maria wrote a story for us in Spanish about her research, but you can also find analysis in English by some of her colleagues. Links to both of those are in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-racial-hunger-gap-in-american-cities-and-what-to-do-about-it-podcast-161202">the show notes</a>. </p>
<p>Gemma: To end the show this week, we’ve got some recommended reading on the situation in Israel-Palestine from one of our editors in the UK. </p>
<p>Jonathan Este: Hi, I’m Jonathan Este and I’m the international affairs editor based in Cambridge. As you’d expect, I’ve spent the past week thinking about what’s been going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The terrible violence escalated so quickly. But it’d be wrong to think it came out of nowhere. </p>
<p>I asked Carlo Aldrovandi, an assistant professor of peace studies at Trinity College, Dublin, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/jerusalem-the-politics-behind-the-latest-explosion-of-violence-in-the-holy-city-160647">consider the politics on both sides</a>. Israeli politics has been in turmoil recently with four elections in the past two years and they’ve all ended in political stalemate. After the most recent poll in March, though, it was beginning to look as if long-time prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu might lose is job. The Palestinian side is no less messy. Elections for the Palestinian authority were postponed by President Mahmoud Abbas last month. He’s worried that his Fatah party would lose power to its rival Hamas. </p>
<p>Add to that, the ongoing attempts by Israeli settlers to force Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem where many of them have lived for generations, as well as a violent Israeli crack down on protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and you’ve got a potent recipe for the violence that continues to rage. </p>
<p>I also asked John Strawson at the University of East London to look into how Israel’s governments <a href="https://theconversation.com/israeli-politics-and-the-palestine-question-everything-you-need-to-know-157520">have dealt with the Palestinian situation over the decades.</a> He concluded that, apart from the 1993 Oslo Accords to allow Palestinians more autonomy, Israel’s commitment to Palestinian statehood has been pretty much nonexistent. And it remains like that to this day. I think we all share a hope for a quick resolution to this terrible violence. That’s it from me. </p>
<p>Gemma: Jonathan Este there in Cambridge. </p>
<p>That’s it for this week. Thanks to all the academics who who’ve spoken to us for this episode. And to the Conversation editors Matt Williams, Martin La Monica, Lucía Cabellero, Jonathan Este and Stephen Khan. </p>
<p>Dan: You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a> or on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or email us at podcast@theconversation.com. And if you want to learn more about any of the things we talked about on the show today, there are links to further reading in the shownotes where you can also sign up to our <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">free daily email</a>.</p>
<p>Gemma: The Conversation Weekly is co-produced by Mend Mariwany and me, Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>Dan: I’m Dan Merino. Thanks so much for listening everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
This is a transcript of episode 16 of The Conversation Weekly podcast The racial hunger gap in American cities and what do about it. In this episode, we look at some of the reasons behind racial disparities…
Gemma Ware, Head of Audio
Daniel Merino, Associate Breaking News Editor and Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160122
2021-05-05T15:04:50Z
2021-05-05T15:04:50Z
How we discovered the oldest human burial in Africa – and what it tells us about our ancestors
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398879/original/file-20210505-19-1tn6yzw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C478%2C2421%2C2942&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Virtual ideal reconstruction of Mtoto’s position in the burial pit.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jorge González/Elena Santos</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How did human uniqueness first evolve among our ancestors, setting us apart from other animals? That is a question many archaeologists <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-giant-leap-for-mankind-why-weve-been-looking-at-human-evolution-in-the-wrong-way-60935">are grappling with</a> by investigating early records of art, language, food preparation, ornaments and symbols. How our ancestors treated and mourned the dead can also offer crucial clues, helping to reveal when we first developed the abstract thinking needed to fully grasp the concept of death.</p>
<p>Now we have discovered a 78,000-year-old human burial at a cave in the tropical coast of eastern Africa, which provides tantalising evidence about our ancestors’ treatment of the dead. Our new study, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03457-8">published in Nature</a>, describes the burial of a 2½ to 3-year-old child, nicknamed “Mtoto” (Swahili for “child”), at the <a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/1466873/miller-panga-ya-saidi-cave">Panga ya Saidi</a> archaeological site in Kenya. It is the earliest known <em>Homo sapiens</em> burial in Africa.</p>
<p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/1UUyTMUXGMipxAUOcIe91L?si=Auf3A3WlSTKQupGqTfZwug&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A14O3EsEGWQ4mK3XpKzsncP&t=1495&nd=1"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402107/original/file-20210521-17-1n1887w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Promotional image for podcast" width="100%"></a>
<br>
<em>Find other ways to listen to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-racial-hunger-gap-in-american-cities-and-what-to-do-about-it-podcast-161202">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a> here.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The excavations began in 2010. So far, they have revealed a record of human occupation from 78,000 to 500 years ago, covering the Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age periods of African archaeology. Mtoto’s burial lay towards the base of the excavation site and was first recognised because it contained sediment of a different colour from the surroundings. </p>
<p>The initial examination revealed highly degraded bone. We quickly realised that the material was so fragile that standard excavation techniques were not suitable. Instead the whole burial pit was removed as a single block of sediment and sent to the <a href="https://www.cenieh.es/en">National Research Centre on Human Evolution</a> (CENIEH) in Burgos, Spain.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of the cave site." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398880/original/file-20210505-13-frsx4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cave site of Panga ya Saidi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohammad Javad Shoaee</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several months of painstaking laboratory excavation revealed Mtoto, lying on his/her right side and with the knees drawn towards the chest. The skeleton was reasonably intact, which alongside detailed analysis of the surrounding sediment implied that the body decomposed within a filled grave. The displacements of some bones suggested that Mtoto’s upper body was either tightly shrouded in some sort of perishable material, presumably hide or vegetation, or that the grave was densely packed with sediment during the burial. </p>
<p>Intriguingly, there is also evidence that Mtoto’s head may have been supported by perishable material in the grave. It was found rotated relative to the body, a common occurrence when pillowing decomposes – leaving a void. Clearly, Mtoto was carefully placed within a grave, probably with the upper body shrouded and the head pillowed, prior to burial. The evidence suggests that Mtoto’s body was disposed of deliberately, with some form of community involvement or funerary rite. Certainly the body wasn’t abandoned or accidentally buried by geological processes such as a flood.</p>
<h2>Unique case?</h2>
<p>What can this tell us about our ancestors? In Eurasia, both <em>Homo Sapiens</em> and Neanderthals commonly buried their dead in residential sites from at least 120,000 years ago. Why does the oldest burial in Africa occur so much later, given the continent’s centrality to the emergence of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-excavated-beads-tell-us-about-the-when-and-where-of-human-evolution-53695">modern human behaviour</a>”? One possibility is that prior to 78,000 years ago, African populations treated their dead differently.</p>
<p>There is some evidence that earlier populations in Africa may have removed the flesh from key body parts, notably the cranium, and stored only the bones. This process has been referred to as defleshing and curation. Cutmarks and polishing on three 150,000-year-old skulls <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01670">found at Herto, Ethiopia </a>, supports this possibility. It is possible that this special treatment of the dead was associated with grief or mourning. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of the trench excavation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398881/original/file-20210505-13-un9bz4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The human burial was found at the bottom of this trench excavation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohammad Javad Shoaee</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We may also be looking for early human bodies in the wrong places. Most archaeological excavations occur at residential sites. If earlier cultures disposed of bodies away from these areas, they would be archaeologically invisible. For example, bodies may have been left in natural places such as cave fissures or hollows, a practice known as <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203813300-10/funerary-caching-earliest-burials-early-homo-sapiens-paul-pettitt">funerary caching</a>. </p>
<p>The precise cultural significance of funerary caching is unclear, but the practice appears to be ancient. A large concentration of hominin bones dated to 430,000 years ago was also found at <a href="https://theconversation.com/chew-on-this-neanderthal-jaws-evolved-before-brains-28190">Sima de los Huesos</a> (Pit of the Bones) in Atapuerca, Spain. </p>
<p>Prior to the discovery of Mtoto, the earliest known African burials were at <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-ancient-tomb-of-a-young-child">Taramsa, Egypt (69,000 years ago)</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298430331_Earliest_evidence_of_personal_ornaments_associated_with_burial_The_Conus_shells_from_Border_Cave">Border Cave, South Africa (74,000 years ago)</a>. The Taramsa child was found in a pit, initially dug to mine rock for stone tool production. Consequently this site may be viewed as a late example of funerary caching. The Border Cave infant was excavated in 1941 and, unlike with Mtoto, no information about the position of the remains are available. This makes it impossible to unequivocally describe the evidence from Border Cave as a burial. </p>
<p>But taken together, the evidence possibly suggests that African funerary practices changed over time. It may indicate a shift, sometime between ~150,000 and ~80,000 years ago, from the defleshing and curation seen at Herto, to funerary caching and burials at Panga ya Saidi, Taramsa and Border Cave. It is also striking that all of these sites contain younger individuals. Possibly the bodies of children received special treatment in this ancient period.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Armitage receives funding from the Research Council of Norway, through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), project number 262618. </span></em></p>
Burials seem to have been uncommon in Africa some 80,000 years ago, although they were widespread in Eurasia.
Simon Armitage, Professor in Quaternary Science, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/149150
2020-12-08T19:09:18Z
2020-12-08T19:09:18Z
Visions of future cemeteries: 5 models and how Australians feel about them
<p>The coming decades represent an era of uncertainty for Australia’s cemeteries. They also present an opportunity to reflect on what our public cemeteries could and should be. </p>
<p>Our cemeteries are <a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-the-dead-what-happens-when-a-city-runs-out-of-space-70121">running out of space</a>, with more Australians dying than ever before. As a result of a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/regional-population/latest-release">growing</a> and <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1CD2B1952AFC5E7ACA257298000F2E76">ageing</a> population, the country’s annual death count has more than doubled since 1960. It will <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/36">double again</a> by around 2070.</p>
<p>Unlike other real estate, cemetery space is largely a non-renewable resource. Many European countries lease grave sites for a <a href="https://www.talkdeath.com/cemetery-overcrowding-leading-europe-recycle-burial-plots/">limited period</a>, but most Australian states and territories stipulate that each burial must be preserved in perpetuity. New South Wales has introduced a system of opt-in <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/219610/CCNSW-General-Consumer-Guide.pdf">25-year leases</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-the-dead-what-happens-when-a-city-runs-out-of-space-70121">Housing the dead: what happens when a city runs out of space?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some intercity cemeteries have been closed to new burials for decades. Demands on cemeteries as green spaces for leisure and recreation, as well as commemorating the dead, are also growing.</p>
<p>This is what makes Victoria’s <a href="https://www.gmct.com.au/harkness">Harkness</a> cemetery development, a 128-hectare site on the edge of Melbourne’s <a href="https://vpa.vic.gov.au/greenfield/growth-corridor-plans/">West Growth Corridor</a>, so significant. It’s Victoria’s largest new cemetery development in 100 years. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/470533914" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An overview of the Harkness cemetery site 35km northwest of the Melbourne CBD.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Harkness will shape how Australians live and die for many generations to come. And it is an opportunity to imagine a new future for death in Australia. </p>
<p>We are investigating these issues as members of <a href="https://deathtech.research.unimelb.edu.au">The Future Cemetery</a> project team, in partnership with colleagues at the University of Melbourne, Oxford University and the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust. Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted <a href="https://deathtech.research.unimelb.edu.au/2020/10/09/the-future-cemetery-release-of-first-annual-survey-and-workshop-reports/">two studies</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>a co-design workshop with representatives of the <a href="https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/australia-death-care-market">Australian death care industry</a>, which came up with five models for future cemeteries</p></li>
<li><p>a national survey of attitudes to cemeteries, which found many Australians are open to change.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-beneath-the-trees-a-plan-to-solve-our-shortage-of-cemetery-space-124259">Buried beneath the trees: a plan to solve our shortage of cemetery space</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How cemeteries are changing</h2>
<p>Changes in demography, religious affiliation and technology, among other factors, shape public attitudes to how the dead should be treated. </p>
<p>The demographic trend is reasonably clear. Australia’s population is projected to <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/population-projections-australia/latest-release">grow strongly</a> in coming decades (despite the <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-4-million-less-than-projected-how-coronavirus-could-hit-australias-population-in-the-next-20-years-143544">effects of the coronavirus</a>). This growth is driven mainly by high net overseas migration. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-communities-keep-our-cemeteries-alive-as-more-anglo-australians-turn-to-cremation-124180">Migrant communities keep our cemeteries alive as more Anglo-Australians turn to cremation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia’s religious diversity will <a href="http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/australia#/?affiliations_religion_id=0&affiliations_year=2050&region_name=All%20Countries&restrictions_year=2016">likely increase</a>, too. Christianity is projected to become a minority religion by 2050 for the first time since European colonisation, and the population of religiously unaffiliated is growing. The preference for burial or cremation within Australia’s diverse communities has a particular marked impact on future cemetery design. </p>
<p>Technology could also revolutionise cemetery design. New methods for treating human remains, such as recomposition (“<a href="https://theconversation.com/ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-compost-an-eco-friendly-burial-in-just-4-weeks-127794">human composting</a>”), alkaline hydrolysis (“<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/148997/fight-right-cremated-water-rise-alkaline-hydrolysis-america">water cremation</a>”) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-beneath-the-trees-a-plan-to-solve-our-shortage-of-cemetery-space-124259">natural burial</a>, could alter the volume and kinds of remains that end up in cemeteries. Other technologies could change how we see the cemetery, from augmented-reality historical tours to remote grave visits through 3D drone photography.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-compost-an-eco-friendly-burial-in-just-4-weeks-127794">Ashes to ashes, dust to ... compost? An eco-friendly burial in just 4 weeks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iTD0GltXB50?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Alkaline hydrolysis, or water cremation, is seen as a greener alternative to cremation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Five visions of the future cemetery</h2>
<p>The co-design workshop’s five models are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the traditional cemetery as it currently exists</p></li>
<li><p>the nature park cemetery, which integrates burial grounds with native bushland to provide a space that is resource-neutral and open to the public for walking and picnics</p></li>
<li><p>the socially activated cemetery, which makes space available for a range of public uses, from educational activities such as birdwatching and botany to leisure activities such as playgrounds and cafés</p></li>
<li><p>the urban high-rise cemetery, which takes take the form of a centrally located urban building rather than a rolling open lawn, drawing inspiration from <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/9a3a5a/death-is-a-high-tech-trip-in-japans-futuristic-cemeteries">multi-storey columbaria</a> in North-East Asia, to enable the deceased to be laid to rest close to their loved ones</p></li>
<li><p>the digital cemetery, which is the idea of a “technology layer” that will increasingly co-exist with, and perhaps one day even replace, the physical cemetery, where loved ones can share photographs, videos and stories about the deceased. In an age of pandemic lockdowns, this digital layer could even allow for people to visit graves remotely for memorial services.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/small-funerals-online-memorials-and-grieving-from-afar-the-coronavirus-is-changing-how-we-care-for-the-dead-134647">Small funerals, online memorials and grieving from afar: the coronavirus is changing how we care for the dead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Each of these models is a hypothetical – no cemetery in the near future is likely to follow a single model to the exclusion of all others. However, they point towards the differing options cemetery designers have to think about when planning for the next 100 years.</p>
<h2>How do Australians see cemeteries?</h2>
<p>Australians appear to be relatively open to considering new concepts for the cemetery. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://deathtech.research.unimelb.edu.au/2020/10/09/the-future-cemetery-release-of-first-annual-survey-and-workshop-reports/">our national survey</a>, two-thirds of respondents disagreed with the idea that “the cemetery should only be for the interment and memorialisation of the dead”. About a third of respondents supported the use of cemeteries as nature reserves to conserve plants and animals. Similar numbers agreed that a cemetery would be a good place to learn about historical and philosophical issues. </p>
<p>Leisure activities at the cemetery, such as exercise classes, picnics and concerts, attracted much less public support. And conspicuous technologies such as drones and virtual reality systems proved a bridge too far for most.</p>
<p>Most notable was a lack of strong feelings – positive or negative – about many of the proposals for the future cemetery. This suggests to us that, given taboos around death, Australians rarely have the chance to consider the cemetery and its potential uses. We are perhaps open to considering new technologies and ideas for the cemetery, as long as they are implemented respectfully and do not disrupt the fundamental need to mourn the dead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Gould receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), through the Discovery Projects (DP180103148) and the Linkage Projects (LP180100757) schemes, with Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT) as Linkage Project research partner. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fraser Allison receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the Linkage Projects (LP180100757) scheme, with Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT) as Linkage Project research partner.</span></em></p>
City cemeteries are fast running out of space, so researchers surveyed Australians and found many were quite open to the alternatives to traditional burials.
Hannah Gould, Research Fellow, Social And Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Fraser Allison, Research Fellow, Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146817
2020-09-24T15:34:29Z
2020-09-24T15:34:29Z
In death, as in life, Ruth Bader Ginsburg balanced being American and Jewish
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359800/original/file-20200924-14-4rfry2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4977%2C3323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No lengthy viewing of the body, but no quick burial either.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-flag-draped-casket-of-associate-justice-ruth-bader-news-photo/1228668835?adppopup=true">Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As news of the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spread on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, a common question heard in discussions among American Jews was: “<a href="https://forward.com/news/454909/is-ruth-bader-ginsburg-having-a-jewish-burial-heres-what-we-know-so-far/">When will she be buried</a>?”</p>
<p>As a longtime <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/near-eastern-judaic/people/faculty/sarna.html">scholar of American Jewish life</a>, I understood that the question behind that question was whether, in death, Justice Ginsburg’s family would comply with longstanding Jewish tradition that <a href="http://www.jewish-funeral-guide.com/tradition/jewish-burial-society.htm">mandates prompt burial</a>. Or, in accordance with <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-death-americans-are-embracing-new-ways-to-leave-their-remains-85657">longstanding American tradition</a>, would her burial be delayed so that mourners might pay her respects?</p>
<p>In death, as in life, American Jews looked to see how Justice Ginsburg balanced being an American and being a Jew. </p>
<h2>‘Dust returns to the earth’</h2>
<p>“Jewish custom insists on prompt burial…a consideration of particular relevance in hot climates,” the authoritative <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ancient-burial-practices">Encyclopaedia Judaica explains</a>. To honor the dead, Orthodox Jews perform burials as quickly as possible, sometimes within just a few hours.</p>
<p>That’s not always possible, of course. Funerals can be delayed when the death falls on the Sabbath – a day of rest in the Jewish faith when no burials are performed – or on a Jewish holiday. They can also be delayed to accommodate the needs and considerations of close relatives traveling in from afar. </p>
<p>The practice of burying Jews swiftly is so deeply ingrained, however, that in 1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was far from Orthodox and whose funeral was <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-11-07-1995311074-story.html">attended by leaders who rushed in from around the world</a>, had his funeral performed and was buried within just two days of his assassination.</p>
<p>If Justice Ginsburg’s family did not follow Jewish tradition by delaying her burial, in other respects they honored that tradition to the hilt. For example, the wooden casket <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/death-of-ruth-bader-ginsburg/2020/09/21/915269363/ginsburg-to-lie-in-repose-at-supreme-court-on-wednesday-thursday">lying in repose</a> at the Supreme Court and in state at the Capitol remained firmly shut. And in keeping with Jewish practice, there was no public viewing of her body and, apparently, no embalming. Far from preserving the body, Jews believe, following the book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible, that “<a href="https://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-20.htm">the dust returns to the earth as it was</a>” –- the sooner the better. </p>
<h2>A fitting rest</h2>
<p>Justice Ginsburg also received, for the first time in American Jewish history, a traditional <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/09/23/ginsburg-memorial-rabbi-jewish/">Jewish funeral in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court</a>. <a href="https://www.adasisrael.org/clergy-staff-lay-leaders">Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt</a>, a Conservative rabbi of Congregation Adas Israel in Washington and a friend of Ginsburg’s whose husband once served as the justice’s law clerk, presided alongside Chief Justice John Roberts. </p>
<p>The service included all the familiar components of a Jewish funeral including a stirring eulogy, recitation of the <a href="https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2623.htm">23rd Psalm</a>, and the chanting, in Hebrew, of the late medieval prayer <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/el-maleh-rahamim/">El Maleh Rachamim</a>: “God full of mercy…grant fitting rest.” The prayer recited at Ginsburg’s funeral included the justice’s full Hebrew name – Yita Ruchel bat Celia – which includes her mother’s name, but untraditionally, not her father’s.</p>
<p>Usually, burial in a Jewish cemetery follows immediately upon a Jewish funeral, individual mourners reverently accompanying the casket to wherever the cemetery is located. There, around the open grave, additional prayers including a special kaddish, a praise of God, are recited and the casket is lowered. </p>
<p>Mourners and community members then personally participate in the powerful act of filling the grave in, shoveling a spadeful of dirt atop the casket, each thump reinforcing the finality that death represents.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In the case of Justice Ginsburg, that won’t happen in a Jewish cemetery. Instead, after her casket lies in state, it will be <a href="https://www.stripes.com/news/us/ruth-bader-ginsburg-an-advocate-for-military-women-to-be-buried-at-arlington-1.645789">transported to Arlington National Cemetery</a> for a private burial service. Arlington, a national and non-denominational cemetery, has no special section set aside for Jews and explicitly forbids some traditional Jewish rituals such as <a href="https://dc.jewish-funerals.org/burial-jewish-war-veterans-military-cemeteries">manually lowering the casket and filling in the grave</a>.</p>
<h2>Two identities</h2>
<p>The traditional Jewish elements in Justice Ginsburg’s funeral and the departures from Jewish tradition connected with her burial both reflect aspects of her identity. She took <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/how-judaism-animated-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-life-643108">great pride in her Jewish heritage</a> but broke with most traditional Jewish practices. </p>
<p>In death, as in life, she cherished two identities – being an American and being a Jew – even when they failed to easily harmonize. Her Jewish funeral and Arlington National Cemetery burial speak to her quest to balance these two identities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan D. Sarna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The former justice received a Jewish funeral at the Supreme Court. But in other ways, Ginsburg’s burial is breaking with traditional Jewish death rituals.
Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/143070
2020-09-15T11:49:57Z
2020-09-15T11:49:57Z
When someone dies, what happens to the body?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357962/original/file-20200914-24-jc0twd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=383%2C225%2C4551%2C3250&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When a life ends, those who remain deal with the body.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/funeral-home-director-chris-fontana-and-apprentice-news-photo/1212133109">Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Upwards of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm">2.8 million people die</a> every year in the United States. As a funeral director who heads a university mortuary science program, I can tell you that while each individual’s life experiences are unique, what happens to a body after death follows a broadly predictable chain of events.</p>
<p>In general, it depends on three things: where you die, how you die and what you or your family decide on for funeral arrangements and final disposition.</p>
<h2>In death’s immediate aftermath</h2>
<p>Death can happen anywhere: at home; in a hospital, nursing or palliative care facility; or at the scene of an accident, homicide or suicide.</p>
<p>A medical examiner or coroner must investigate whenever a person dies unexpectedly while not under a doctor’s care. Based on the circumstances of the death, they determine whether an autopsy is needed. If so, the body travels to a county morgue or a funeral home, where a pathologist conducts a detailed internal and external examination of the body as well as toxicology tests.</p>
<p>Once the body can be released, some states allow for families to handle the body themselves, but most people employ a funeral director. The body is placed on a stretcher, covered and transferred from the place of death – sometimes via hearse, but more commonly these days a minivan carries it to the funeral home. </p>
<p>State law determines who has the authority to make funeral arrangements and decisions about the remains. In some states, you can choose during your lifetime how you’d like your body treated when you die. In most cases, however, decisions fall on surviving family or someone you appointed before your death.</p>
<h2>Preparing the body for viewing</h2>
<p>In a 2020 consumer survey conducted by the National Funeral Directors Association, 39.4% of respondents reported feeling it’s very important to have the <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/press-kits/2018/jsm/jsm-presentation-pop-projections.pdf">body or cremated remains present</a> at a funeral or memorial service.</p>
<p>To prepare for that, the funeral home will usually ask whether the body is to be embalmed. This process sanitizes the body, temporarily preserves it for viewing and services, and restores a natural, peaceful appearance. Embalming is typically required for a public viewing and in certain other circumstances, including if the person died of a communicable disease or if the cremation or burial is to be delayed for more than a few days.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two funeral home staff stand behind a mortuary table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357964/original/file-20200914-18-5u75p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A funeral home director and an intern stand by a mortuary table.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/funeral-director-alexandra-burke-and-intern-vincent-news-photo/1248738963">John Moore/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the funeral director begins the embalming process, he places the body on a special porcelain or stainless steel table that looks much like what you’d find in an operating room. He washes the body with soap and water and positions it with the hands crossed over the abdomen, as you’d see them appear in a casket. He closes the eyes and mouth.</p>
<p>Next the funeral director makes a small incision near the clavicle, to access the jugular vein and carotid artery. He inserts forceps into the jugular vein to allow blood to drain out, while at the same time injecting embalming solution into the carotid artery via a small tube connected to the embalming machine. For every 50 to 75 pounds of body weight, it takes about a gallon of embalming solution, largely made up of formaldehyde. The funeral director then removes excess fluids and gases from the abdominal and thoracic cavities using an instrument called a trocar. It works much like the suction tube you’ve experienced at the dentist.</p>
<p>Next the funeral director sutures any incisions. He grooms the hair and nails and again washes the body and dries it with towels. If the body is emaciated or dehydrated, he can inject a solution via hypodermic needle to plump facial features. If trauma or disease has altered the appearance of the deceased, the embalmer can use wax, adhesive and plaster to recreate natural form. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A funeral home worker handles cosmetics used to makeup the deceased." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357966/original/file-20200914-20-ys77cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A funeral director prepares to apply makeup to a man who died of COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jeffrey-rhodes-funeral-home-director-applies-makeup-for-man-news-photo/1228017197">Octavio Jones/ Getty Images North America via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lastly, the funeral director dresses the deceased and applies cosmetics. If the clothing provided does not fit, he can cut it and tuck it in somewhere that doesn’t show. Some funeral homes use an airbrush to apply cosmetics; others use specialized mortuary cosmetics or just regular makeup you might find at a store.</p>
<h2>Toward a final resting place</h2>
<p>If the deceased is to be cremated without a public viewing, many funeral homes require a member of the family to identify him or her. Once the death certificate and any other necessary authorizations are complete, the funeral home transports the deceased in a chosen container to a crematory. This could be onsite or at a third-party provider.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man reaches into cremator with a long-handled tool." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357967/original/file-20200914-14-b2zisf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More people in the U.S. are now cremated than embalmed and buried.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/maryland-cremation-services-cremation-operator-edward-pugh-news-photo/1225638524">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cremations are performed individually. Still in the container, the deceased is placed in the cremator, which produces very high heat that reduces the remains to bone fragments. The operator removes any metal objects, like implants, fillings and parts of the casket or cremation container, and then pulverizes the bone fragments. He then places the processed remains in the selected container or urn. Some families choose to keep the cremated remains, while others bury them, place them in a niche or scatter them.</p>
<p>The year 2015 was the first year that the <a href="https://nfda.org/news/in-the-news/nfda-news/id/5223/2020-cremation-burial-projects-cremation-rate-of-87-by-2040">cremation rate exceeded the casketed burial rate</a> in the U.S., and the industry expects that trend to continue.</p>
<p>When earth burial is chosen, the casket is usually placed in a concrete outer burial container before being lowered into the grave. Caskets can also be entombed in above-ground crypts inside buildings called mausoleums. Usually a grave or crypt has a headstone of some kind that bears the name and other details about the decedent.</p>
<p>Some cemeteries have spaces dedicated to environmentally conscious “green” burials in which an unembalmed body can be buried in a biodegradable container. Other forms of final disposition are less common. As an alternative to cremation, the chemical process of alkaline hydrolysis can reduce remains to bone fragments. Composting involves placing the deceased in a vessel with organic materials like wood chips and straw to allow microbes to naturally break down the body.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>I’ve seen many changes over the course of my funeral service career, spanning more than 20 years so far. For decades, funeral directors were predominantly male, but now mortuary school enrollment nationwide is roughly 65% female. Cremation has become more popular. More people pre-plan their own funerals. Many Americans do not have a religious affiliation and therefore opt for a less formal service.</p>
<p>Saying goodbye is important for those who remain, and I have witnessed too many families foregoing a ceremony and later regretting it. A dignified and meaningful farewell and the occasion to share memories and comfort each other <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26555297">honors the life of the deceased and facilitates healing</a> for family and friends.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Evely is affiliated with Volunteer with National Funeral Directors Association, Michigan Funeral Directors Association, American Board of Funeral Service Education and International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards.</span></em></p>
A funeral director explains how the bodies of the deceased are prepared for burial or cremation in the United States.
Mark Evely, Program Director and Assistant Professor of Mortuary Science, Wayne State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140200
2020-06-08T16:22:05Z
2020-06-08T16:22:05Z
The truth about the death and burial of Charles Dickens – In Depth Out Loud podcast
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340401/original/file-20200608-176564-szhu9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C718%2C573&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charles Dickens in his study at Gad's Hill Place in Kent, where he died in 1870. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dickensmuseum.com/">Charles Dickens Museum</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This episode of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/in-depth-out-loud-podcast-46082">In Depth Out Loud podcast</a>, features the work of Leon Litvack at Queen’s University Belfast, a world authority on Charles Dickens, on what happened after the death of the author. </p>
<hr>
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<hr>
<p>His <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Reading+Dickens+Differently-p-9781119602224">new research</a> has uncovered the never-before-explored areas of the great author’s sudden death on June 9 1870, and his subsequent burial. </p>
<p>Dickens’s death created an early predicament for his family. Where was he to be buried? Near his home (as he would have wished) or in that great public pantheon, Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey (which was clearly against his wishes)? But two ambitious men put their own interests ahead of the great writer and his family in an act of institutionally-sanctioned bodysnatching.</p>
<p>You can read the text version of this <a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-dickens-newly-discovered-documents-reveal-truth-about-his-death-and-burial-130079">in depth article here</a>. The audio version is read by Michael Parker and edited by Gemma Ware. </p>
<p>This story came out of a project at The Conversation called <a href="https://theconversation.com/introducing-conversation-insights-a-new-team-that-seeks-scoops-from-interdisciplinary-research-107119">Insights</a>. Sponsored by Research England, our Insights team generate in depth articles derived from interdisciplinary research. You can <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">read their stories here</a>, or subscribe to In Depth Out Loud to listen to more of their articles in the coming months.</p>
<p><em>The music in In Depth Out Loud is Night Caves, by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvwbOVMlp3o">Lee Rosevere</a>.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://pca.st/CcAD"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321533/original/file-20200319-22598-afljnr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Pocket Casts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/In-Depth%2C-Out-Loud-id2612483?country=gb"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321531/original/file-20200319-22632-t8ds9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzVlMjljODIwNWFhNzQ1YTQ1NmFmNThjOA%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzLzVlMjljODIwNWFhNzQ1YTQ1NmFmNThjOA%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leon Litvack is Principal Editor of the Charles Dickens Letters Project (Dickensletters.com) and a Board member of the Charles Dickens Museum, London. This article, published to mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens's death in 2020, is based on new research carried out for 'Dickens's Burial in Westminster Abbey: The Untold Story', the lead chapter in Reading Dickens Differently, edited by Leon Litvack and Nathalie Vanfasse (Wiley, 2020), and 'Charles Dickens and Westminster Abbey: The Elusive Times Leader of 13 June 1870', in the Dickensian 116.1 (2020). </span></em></p>
PODCAST: An audio version of an in depth article on what newly discovered documents reveal about the burial of Charles Dickens, 150 years after his death.
Leon Litvack, Associate Professor, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130079
2020-02-03T23:02:07Z
2020-02-03T23:02:07Z
Charles Dickens: newly discovered documents reveal truth about his death and burial
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310456/original/file-20200116-181617-98q65e.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C13%2C528%2C430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dickens After Death, John Everett Millais, June 10 1870
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dickensmuseum.com/">Charles Dickens Museum</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Charles Dickens died, he had spectacular fame, great wealth and an adoring public. But his personal life was complicated. Separated from his wife and living in a huge country mansion in Kent, the novelist was in the thrall of his young mistress, Ellen Ternan. This is the untold story of Charles Dickens’s final hours and the furore that followed, as the great writer’s family and friends fought over his final wishes. </p>
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<span class="caption">Robert Hindry Mason, photograph of Charles Dickens (1860s).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Dickens_portrait_c1860s_restore.png">wikimedia/nationalmediamusuem</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Reading+Dickens+Differently-p-9781119602224">My new research</a> has uncovered the never-before-explored areas of the great author’s sudden death, and his subsequent burial. While details such as the presence of Ternan at the author’s funeral have already been discovered by Dickensian sleuths, what is new and fresh here is the degree of manoeuvring and negotiations involved in establishing Dickens’s ultimate resting place.</p>
<p>Dickens’s death created an early predicament for his family. Where was he to be buried? Near his home (as he would have wished) or in that great public pantheon, Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey (which was clearly against his wishes)?</p>
<p>“The Inimitable” (as he sometimes referred to himself) was one of the most famous celebrities of his time. No other writer is as closely associated with the Victorian period. As the author of such immortal classics as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol, he was constantly in the public eye. Because of the vivid stories he told, and the causes he championed (including poverty, education, workers’ rights, and the plight of prostitutes), there was great demand for him to represent charities, and appear at public events and visit institutions up and down the country (as well as abroad – particularly in the United States). He moved in the best circles and counted among his friends the top writers, actors, artists and politicians of his day.</p>
<p>Dickens was proud of what he achieved as an author and valued his close association with his public. In 1858 he embarked on a career as a professional reader of his own work and thrilled audiences of thousands with his animated performances. This boost to his career occurred at a time when his marital problems came to a head: he fell in love with Ternan, an 18-year-old actress, and separated from his wife Catherine, with whom he had ten children.</p>
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<span class="caption">Ellen Ternan, the young actress who became Charles Dickens’s mistress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellen_Ternan.jpeg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Dickens was careful to keep his love affair private. Documentary evidence of his relationship with Ternan is very scarce indeed. He had wanted to take her with him on a reading tour to America in 1868, and even developed a telegraphic code to communicate to her whether or not she should come. She didn’t, because Dickens felt that he could not protect their privacy.</p>
<p>On Wednesday June 8 1870, the author was working on his novel Edwin Drood in the garden of his country home, Gad’s Hill Place, near Rochester, in Kent. He came inside to have dinner with his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth, and suffered a stroke. The local doctor was summoned and remedies were applied without effect. A telegram was sent to London, to summon John Russell Reynolds, one of the top neurologists in the land. By the following day the author’s condition hadn’t changed and he died at 6.10pm, on June 9.</p>
<p>Accepted wisdom concerning Dickens’s death and burial is drawn from an authorised biography published by John Forster: <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25851/25851-h/25851-h.htm">The Life of Charles Dickens</a>. Forster was the author’s closest friend and confidant. He was privy to the most intimate areas of his life, including the time he spent in a blacking (boot polish) warehouse as a young boy (which was a secret, until disclosed by Forster in his book), as well as details of his relationship with Ternan (which were not revealed by Forster, and which remained largely hidden well into the 20th century). Forster sought to protect Dickens’s reputation with the public at all costs. </p>
<h2>Last Will and Testament</h2>
<p>In his will (reproduced in Forster’s biography), Dickens had left instructions that he should be:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Buried in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner; that no public announcement be made of the time or place of my burial; that at the utmost not more than three plain mourning coaches be employed; and that those who attend my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hat-band, or other such revolting absurdity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Forster added that Dickens’s preferred place of burial – his Plan A – was “in the small graveyard under Rochester Castle wall, or in the little churches of Cobham or Shorne”, which were all near his country home. However, Forster added: “All these were found to be closed”, by which he meant unavailable. </p>
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<span class="caption">John Forster (1812-76).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leon Litvack</span></span>
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<p>Plan B was then put into action. Dickens was set to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, at the direction of the <a href="https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/glossary/dean-and-chapter/">Dean and Chapter</a> (the ecclesiastical governing body). They had even dug a grave for the great man. But this plan too was scuppered, in favour of interment in <a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/charles-dickens">Poets’ Corner, in Westminster Abbey</a> – the resting place of Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, and other literary greats.</p>
<p>Forster claims in the biography that the media led the way in agitating for burial in the abbey. He singles out The Times, which, in an article of January 13 1870, “took the lead in suggesting that the only fit resting place for the remains of a man so dear to England was the abbey in which the most illustrious Englishmen are laid”. He added that when the Dean of Westminster, <a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/arthur-augusta-stanley#i14281">Arthur Penrhyn Stanley</a>, asked Forster and members of the Dickens family to initiate what was now Plan C, and bury him in the abbey, it became their “grateful duty to accept that offer”.</p>
<p>The private funeral occurred early in the morning of Tuesday June 14 1870, and was attended by 14 mourners. The grave was then left open for three days so that the public could pay their respects to one of the most famous figures of the age. Details of the authorised version of Dickens’s death and burial were carried by all the major and minor newspapers in the English-speaking world and beyond. Dickens’s estranged wife Catherine received a message of condolence from Queen Victoria, expressing “her deepest regret at the sad news of Charles Dickens’s death”.</p>
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
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<p>The effect that Dickens’s death had on ordinary people may be appreciated from the reaction of a barrow girl who sold fruits and vegetables in Covent Garden Market. When she heard the news, she is reported to have said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?”</p>
<h2>The funeral directors</h2>
<p>My investigation has revealed, however, how Dickens’s burial in Poets’ Corner was engineered by Forster and Stanley to satisfy their personal aims, rather than the author’s own. While the official story was that it was the “will of the people” to have Dickens buried in the Abbey (and there were articles in The Times to this effect), the reality was that this alteration suited both the biographer and the churchman. </p>
<p>Forster could conclude the volume he was contemplating in a fitting manner, by having Dickens interred in the national pantheon where so many famous literary figures were buried. He thus ensured that a stream of visitors would make a pilgrimage to Dickens’s grave and spread his reputation far and wide, for posterity.</p>
<p>Stanley could add Dickens to his roll of famous people whose burials he conducted. They included Lord Palmerston, the former UK prime minister, mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel, missionary and explorer David Livingstone, and Sir Rowland Hill, the postal reformer and originator of the penny post.</p>
<p>The efforts of Forster and Stanley to get Dickens buried exactly where they wanted enhanced the reputations of both men. For each of them, the interment of Dickens in the abbey might be considered the highlight of their careers.</p>
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<span class="caption">Luke Fildes, Dickens’s grave in Westminster Abbey (1873).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Dickens Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>‘Mr Dickens very ill, most urgent’</h2>
<p>The new evidence I have found was gathered from libraries, archives and cathedral vaults and prove beyond a doubt that any claims about the Westminster burial being the will of the people are false.</p>
<p>What emerges is an atmosphere of urgency in the Dickens household after the author collapsed. Dickens’s son Charley sent the telegram to the author’s staff in London, requesting urgent medical assistance from the eminent neurologist, John Russell Reynolds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Go without losing a moment to Russell Reynolds thirty eight Grosvenor St Grosvenor Sqr tell him to come by next train to Higham or Rochester to meet… Beard (Dickens’s physician), at Gadshill … Mr Dickens very ill most urgent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dickens’s sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth, who ran his household and cared for his children after the separation from Catherine, was clearly disappointed that the specialist could do nothing for her much-adored brother-in-law. She sent a note to her solicitor with the doctor’s fee: “I enclose Dr Reynolds’ demand (of £20) for his fruitless visit.”</p>
<p>Dean Stanley had met Dickens in 1870, after being introduced by the churchman’s brother-in-law, Frederick Locker, who was a friend of the novelist. Stanley confided to his private journal (now housed in the archives of Westminster Abbey) that he was “much struck” by his conversation with Dickens and appreciated the few opportunities he had to meet the author before he died.</p>
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<span class="caption">Frederick Locker, from My Confidences, 1896.</span>
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<p>Locker’s memoir also records an interesting conversation he had with Stanley before this 1870 meeting, which sheds light on the Dean’s attitude towards the novelist, his death and funeral. Locker writes about talking to Stanley “of the burials in the abbey” and they discussed the names of some “distinguished people”. Stanley told him there were “certain people” he would be “obliged to refuse” burial, on account of personal antipathies. But his attitude changed when the name of the author “came up” and he said he “should like to meet Dickens”. Then, to “gratify” Stanley’s “pious wish”, Locker asked Dickens and his daughter to dine. Thus even while Dickens was still alive, Stanley privately expressed a desire to bury him.</p>
<p>When the end came, Locker conveyed the news to his brother-in-law on that very day – June 9. The Dean wrote to Locker to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Alas! – how soon we have been overtaken by the event which we were anticipating as so distant. I cannot amply thank you for having given me the opportunity of having met Charles Dickens while there was yet time. You will gather from what I have already said that I am quite prepared to raise any proposals about the burial that may be made to me.</p>
</blockquote>
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<span class="caption">Letter from A.P. Stanley to Frederick Locker, June 9 1870. Locker wrote in pencil towards the top: ‘Dickens’ Death’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">By kind permission of the Armstrong Browning Library.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The letter is fascinating. On the very day of the famous author’s death, the Dean was already thinking about burial in the Abbey. But there was a catch: Stanley could only entertain such a proposal if it came from the family and executors. He could not act unilaterally.</p>
<p>Locker quickly seized the opportunity hinted at in Stanley’s letter and sent a copy of it to Charley Dickens (the author’s son) on June 10. He wrote in his covering note: “I wish to send you a copy of a letter that I have just received from Dean Stanley and I think it will explain itself. If I can be of any use pray tell me.”</p>
<h2>False claims and ambition</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, the idea of getting Dickens to Poets’ Corner was growing in Stanley’s imagination. He wrote to his cousin Louisa on Saturday June 11 to say “I never met (Dickens) till this year… And now he is gone … and it is not improbable that I may bury him”. It’s interesting how quickly the plan crystallised in the Dean’s mind. Within the space of 48 hours, he went from hypothetical proposals from the family for burial, to foreseeing a key role for himself in the proceedings.</p>
<p>However, an answer from Charley Dickens wasn’t forthcoming. Stanley waited until the morning of Monday June 13, before seeking another way of making his wishes known to the family. He got in touch with his friend Lord Houghton (formerly <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Monckton-Milnes">Rickard Monckton Milnes</a> – a poet, politician and friend of Dickens), reiterating his preparedness “to receive any proposal for (Dickens’s) burial in the Abbey” and asking Houghton to “act as you think best”.</p>
<p>It was at this point in the proceedings that Forster took charge of the planning. He had been away in Cornwall when Dickens died and it took him two days to reach Gad’s Hill. When he reached Dickens’s country home on Saturday June 11 he was overcome with grief at the death of his friend and clearly unprepared for the suddenness with which the blow was struck. His first thoughts, and those of the immediate family, were to accede to Dickens’s wishes and have him buried close to home. While the official account, in his <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/life-of-charles-dickens/6284CDD0FDF4F22EC4BCBBA2E7A8FE7F">Life of Dickens</a>, claims that the graveyards in the vicinity of his home were “closed”, an examination of the records of the churches in Cobham and Shorne demonstrate this to be false. </p>
<p>The proposed burial in Rochester Cathedral was not only advanced, but in fact finalised, costed, and invoiced. The Chapter archives demonstrate that a grave was in fact dug in St Mary’s Chapel by the building firm Foord & Sons. The records also show that the Cathedral authorities “believed, as they still believe (after Dickens was buried in the Abbey), that no more fitting or honourable spot for his sepulture could be found than amidst scenes to which he was fondly attached, and amongst those by whom he was personally known as a neighbour and held in such honour”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311379/original/file-20200122-117917-11a04y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Extract from the minute book of the Chapter of Rochester Cathedral, June 23 1870, confirming the payment made to John Foord & Sons for preparing Dickens’s grave in St Mary’s chapel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Medway Archives & Local Studies.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These views are reinforced by the claims of Hogarth, Dickens’s sister-in-law, in a letter to a friend:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We should have preferred Rochester Cathedral, and it was a great disappointment to the people there that we had to give way to the larger demand.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This “larger demand” came – at least in part – from <a href="https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/charles-dickens-and-westminster-abbey-the-elusive-times-leader-of">a leader that appeared in The Times on Monday June 13</a>. It concluded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let (Dickens) lie in the Abbey. Where Englishmen gather to review the memorials of the great masters and teachers of their nation, the ashes and the name of the greatest instructor of the nineteenth century should not be absent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite this appeal appearing in the press, Stanley’s private journal records that he still “had received no application from any person in authority”, and so “took no steps” to advance his burial plan.</p>
<p>Stanley’s prayers must have seemed answered, then, when Forster and Charley Dickens appeared at the door of the Deanery on that same day. According to the Dean, after they sat down, Forster said to Stanley: “I imagine the article in the ‘Times’ must have been written with your concurrence?” Stanley replied: “No, I had no concern with it, but at the same time I had given it privately to be understood that I would consent to the interment if it was demanded.” By this Stanley meant the letter he had sent to Locker, which the latter had forwarded to Charley. Stanley of course agreed to the request from Dickens’s representatives for burial in Poets’ Corner. What he refrains from saying is how much he personally was looking forward to officiating at an event of such national significance.</p>
<p>While it’s clear, from the private correspondence I have examined, that Stanley agitated for Dickens’s burial in the abbey, the actions of Forster are harder to trace. He left fewer clues about his intentions and he destroyed all of his working notes for his monumental three volume biography of Dickens. These documents included many <a href="http://dickensletters.com/">letters from the author</a>. Forster used Dickens’s correspondence liberally in his account. In fact, the only source we have for most of the letters from Dickens to Forster are the passages that appear in the biography. </p>
<p>But as well as showing how Forster falsely claimed in his biography that the graveyards near his home were “closed”, my research also reveals how he altered the words of Stanley’s (published) funeral sermon to suit his own version of events. Forster quoted Stanley as saying that Dickens’s grave “would thenceforward be a sacred one with both the New World and the Old, as that of the representative of the literature, not of this island only, but of all who speak our English tongue”. This, however, is a mis-quotation of <a href="http://anglicanhistory.org/england/apstanley/dickens1870.html">the sermon</a>, in which Stanley actually said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many, many are the feet which have trodden and will tread the consecrated ground around that narrow grave; many, many are the hearts which both in the Old and in the New World are drawn towards it, as towards the resting-place of a dear personal friend; many are the flowers that have been strewed, many the tears shed, by the grateful affection of ‘the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and those that had none to help them’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stanley worked with Forster to achieve their common aim. In 1872, when Forster sent Stanley a copy of the first volume of his Life of Dickens, the Dean wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You are very good to speak so warmly of any assistance I may have rendered in carrying out your wishes and the desire of the country on the occasion of the funeral. The recollection of it will always be treasured amongst the most interesting of the various experiences which I have traversed in my official life.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310457/original/file-20200116-181608-hha0r7.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Grave of Charles Dickens in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey Illustrated London News, June 1870.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dickensmuseum.com/">Leon Litvack</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>For the ages</h2>
<p>My research demonstrates that the official, authorised accounts of the lives and deaths of the rich and famous are open to question and forensic investigation – even long after their histories have been written and accepted as canonical. Celebrity is a manufactured commodity, that depends for its effect on the degree to which the fan (which comes from the word “fanatic”) can be manipulated into believing a particular story about the person whom he or she adores. </p>
<p>In the case of Dickens, two people who had intimate involvement in preserving his reputation for posterity were not doing so for altruistic reasons: there was something in it for each of them. Stanley interred the mortal remains of Dickens in the principal shrine of British artistic greatness. This ensured that his tomb became a site of pilgrimage, where the great and the good would come to pay their respects – including the Prince of Wales, who laid a wreath on Dickens’s grave in 2012, to mark the bicentenary of his birth.</p>
<p>Such public commemorations of this Victorian superstar carry special meaning and mystique for his many fans. This year, on February 7 (the anniversary of his birth), Armando Iannucci (director of the new film adaptation <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6439020/">The Personal History of David Copperfield</a>) is scheduled give the toast to “the immortal memory” at a special dinner hosted by <a href="https://www.dickensfellowship.org">the Dickens Fellowship</a> – a worldwide association of admirers. The 150th anniversary of his death will be observed at Westminster Abbey on June 8 2020.</p>
<p>Whether it’s the remembrance of the author’s death or his birth, these public acts symbolise how essential Dickens is to Britain’s national culture. None of this would have been possible, however, had it not been for the involvement of Dickens’s best friend and executor, John Forster. Forster organised the private funeral in Westminster Abbey in accordance with Dickens’s wishes, and ensured that his lover Ellen Ternan could discreetly attend, and that his estranged wife would not. But he is also the man who overruled the expectations of the author for a local burial. Instead, through an act of institutionally sanctioned bodysnatching, the grave in Poets’ Corner bound Dickens forever in the public mind with the ideals of national life and art and provided a fitting conclusion to Forster’s carefully considered, strategically constructed biography. It ends with these words:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Facing the grave, and on its left and right, are the monuments of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dryden, the three immortals who did most to create and settle the language to which Charles Dickens has given another undying name.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/they-put-a-few-coins-in-your-hands-to-drop-a-baby-in-you-265-stories-of-haitian-children-abandoned-by-un-fathers-114854?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘They put a few coins in your hands to drop a baby in you’ – 265 stories of Haitian children abandoned by UN fathers</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-the-world-a-history-of-how-a-silent-cosmos-led-humans-to-fear-the-worst-120193?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The end of the world: a history of how a silent cosmos led humans to fear the worst</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/decades-neglecting-an-ancient-disease-has-triggered-a-health-emergency-around-the-world-121282?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Decades neglecting an ancient disease has triggered a health emergency around the world</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leon Litvack is Principal Editor of the Charles Dickens Letters Project (Dickensletters.com) and a Board member of the Charles Dickens Museum, London.
This article, published to mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens's death in 2020, is based on new research carried out for 'Dickens's Burial in Westminster Abbey: The Untold Story', the lead chapter in Reading Dickens Differently, edited by Leon Litvack and Nathalie Vanfasse (Wiley, 2020), and 'Charles Dickens and Westminster Abbey: The Elusive Times Leader of 13 June 1870', in the Dickensian 116.1 (2020). </span></em></p>
How two ambitious men put their own interests ahead of the great writer and his family in an act of institutionally-sanctioned bodysnatching.
Leon Litvack, Associate Professor, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127794
2020-01-02T21:56:20Z
2020-01-02T21:56:20Z
Ashes to ashes, dust to … compost? An eco-friendly burial in just 4 weeks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306945/original/file-20191215-85412-109k0lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1006%2C2700%2C1657&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist's impression of the proposed ceremonial space of the Recompose facility in Seattle.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://olsonkundig.com/">Images courtesy of Olson Kundig</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia, interment in a cemetery or a churchyard has been the most common choices for in-ground burial. Over the past 20 years, though, burial has become a less accessible and more costly option for many people. This is because increasing numbers of deaths have created a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/grave-sellers-take-advantage-of-high-sydney-cemetery-prices-20150709-gi8ih9.html">boom in demand for burial plots</a> and cemeteries are fast <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/143402/CCNSW-Metropolitan-Sydney-Cemetery-Capacity-Report.pdf">running out of space</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 1950s, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-27/green-death-funeral-environment/10994330">cremation has gained in popularity</a>. But, although a <a href="https://www.gatheredhere.com.au/burial-cremation-everything-need-know/">majority of Australians who died last year were cremated</a>, it is far from sustainable. Each cremation releases about <a href="https://www.foreground.com.au/environment/urban-burial-cemetery-landscapes/">50 kilograms of CO₂</a> as well as <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eco-afterlife-green-buria/">toxins</a> into the atmosphere. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-the-dead-what-happens-when-a-city-runs-out-of-space-70121">Housing the dead: what happens when a city runs out of space?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Australian way of death clearly needs to change, but arriving at solutions is a far more complicated matter.</p>
<p>Some people believe composting burial might provide one answer. Also known as “<a href="https://www.recompose.life/faq">natural organic reduction</a>”, composting burial is the brainchild of Katrina Spade, CEO of alternative burial company <a href="https://www.recompose.life/">Recompose</a>. The process involves decomposition of the corpse in soil — but not within a traditional cemetery. </p>
<h2>How does it work?</h2>
<p>The first step in the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/washington-first-state-allow-burial-method-human-composting-180972020/">process</a> of composting burial is to place the body into a vessel containing a mix of soil, wood chips, straw and alfalfa. As decomposition begins, microbial activity creates heat. This speeds things up and eliminates germs from the mix. </p>
<p>Over time the body is transformed into soil – <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/02/everything-youre-afraid-to-ask-about-human-composting">around 760 litres of it</a>. A portion of this soil will be returned to relatives for scattering, to make a memorial garden, or to use in public greening projects. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-beneath-the-trees-a-plan-to-solve-our-shortage-of-cemetery-space-124259">Buried beneath the trees: a plan to solve our shortage of cemetery space</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306946/original/file-20191215-85417-di777i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist’s impression of the proposed decomposition vessel in Seattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Images courtesy of Olson Kundig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="https://www.recompose.life/pilot">pilot interment program</a> conducted by Washington State University showed the process takes about four weeks. This is a big difference to traditional burial. It can take up to hundreds of years before a grave can be reused. </p>
<p>The state of Washington recently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/04/26/washington-passes-bill-become-first-state-compost-human-bodies/">legalised composting burial</a>. The next step is implementation and Recompose has paired with architecture firm Olson Kundig to design the <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/11/20/recompose-seattle-human-composting-olson-kundig/">world’s first facility</a> for composting burial in Seattle. It has 75 vessels. If these are reused every four weeks, the facility could process about 900 burials per year. </p>
<h2>How does the cost compare?</h2>
<p>These recent developments pave the way for its possible introduction in Australia. However, many questions remain to be answered. Is it really a more affordable or sustainable option than traditional modes of bodily disposal?</p>
<p>In 2019, Australian Seniors’ <a href="https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/fe157580-e3ba-00c4-7df9-7b5d8eaae1c1/9f2cd012-2946-4653-bf32-78eb4801c175/whitepaper-australian-seniors-cost-of-death-report.pdf">Cost of Death Report</a> found the average cost of a basic burial is $8,048. A basic cremation costs $3,108 on average. </p>
<p>However, the cost of an individual burial depends on where you live. Exclusive beachside locales command the <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/realestate/news/sydney-burial-plots-more-expensive-per-square-metre-than-luxury-homes-worth-millions/story-fni0cly6-1227209414874">highest prices</a> for burial real estate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306948/original/file-20191215-85422-ay26ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At Waverley Cemetery in Sydney a burial can cost upwards of $25,000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Waverley_Cemetery#/media/File:Waverley_Cemetery,_Bronte,_New_South_Wales_31.jpg">Kgbo/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/losing-the-plot-death-is-permanent-but-your-grave-isnt-33459">Losing the plot: death is permanent, but your grave isn't</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And, if you’re an Australian pensioner with no savings who has lived your whole life in the inner city, you’re going to <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/money-markets/the-most-expensive-land-in-australia-might-be-graves-heres-the-problem-20180627-h11wzp-441795/">struggle to afford a burial plot</a> in your neighbourhood. </p>
<p>When the Recompose facility opens in 2021 in Seattle, composting burial will be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/04/26/washington-passes-bill-become-first-state-compost-human-bodies/">on offer for about USD$5,500</a> (A$8,000) — about the same as a basic traditional burial in Australia. The costs might come down if the practice becomes widespread.</p>
<p>However, the technology is likely to be covered by patent. This means licensing agreements would limit its adoption. So, in the short term at least, composting burial is likely to be marketed towards those on average to high incomes. </p>
<h2>Honouring the dead</h2>
<p>Perhaps the main benefit of composting burial is the flexibility of having remains that are not attached to a traditional grave site. If you want to be buried in a particular place that holds personal meaning for you, but don’t mind being decomposed in a building, composting burial may allow this to happen. </p>
<p>Of course, local bylaws that govern the disposal of human remains in public places will continue to play an important role. </p>
<p>Related to this is an underexplored potential for composting burial businesses to partner with government, private industry, nonprofit organisations and local councils to create memorial parks where “human soils” might be interred. A drawback to this could be squeamishness in the community about playing frisbee on top of grandpa.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306949/original/file-20191215-85381-5rje8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist’s impression of the interior of the proposed Recompose facility in Seattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Images courtesy of Olson Kundig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A greener alternative</h2>
<p>Another potential benefit of composting burial is its sustainability. Founder Katrina Spade claims <a href="https://www.recompose.life/faq">a metric ton of CO₂ will be saved</a> every time someone chooses composting burial over traditional burial or cremation. </p>
<p>When seen in this light, composting burial makes more environmental sense than cremation. But, just like buying organic fruit, sustainability comes at a premium. </p>
<p>Beneath the practical considerations of space, cost and sustainability are the less visible questions about change and community resistance to burial practices that are new and confronting. It will take a lot to abandon traditional mourning practices that celebrate ideas of permanence, attachment to the grave and the notion of the loved one resting in an earthbound coffin. </p>
<p>There is hope, though, that composting burial will gain in appeal as a way of maintaining these important connections to traditional burial. By respecting each person’s desire to be returned after death to a place of their choosing, composting burial offers an intriguing and sensitive alternative.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Sheppard-Simms receives funding from the University of Tasmania under a Tasmanian Graduate Research Scholarship.</span></em></p>
Composting burial could revolutionise bodily disposal in Australia. The need for a sustainable and affordable alternative to traditional burial practices is becoming increasingly urgent.
Emma Sheppard-Simms, PhD Candidate, School of Technology, Environments and Design, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126607
2019-11-11T14:10:29Z
2019-11-11T14:10:29Z
Skeletons and closets: How one university reburied the dead
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300866/original/file-20191108-194675-mnznvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">SutherlandReburials Jannetje</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>This story begins with an archive audit at the University of Cape Town’s department of human biology. The audit reveals the remains of 11 human skeletons that had been unethically obtained and used for study many decades earlier. It becomes a stock-taking and place-making moment in the life of the department. A multi-disciplinary team of academics sets about rehumanising the San and Khoi remains, consulting with their ancestors – both past and present – and restoring dignity to the bones. Called the <a href="http://www.news.uct.ac.za/features/sutherland/">Sutherland Reburials Project</a>, the process enabled the university to attempt to provide an ethical model of redress and social justice through science. We asked the project’s Dr Victoria Gibbon to tell us more…</em></p>
<p><strong>How did you rediscover the skeletons and their attendant ethical dilemma?</strong></p>
<p>Globally, the historical unethical procurement and use of skeletal remains is something that haunts biological anthropology. In 2017, there were several South African initiatives to drive a process to distinguish between ethical and unethical procurement of human remains in universities and museums – and to discuss restitution. I returned to the University of Cape Town (UCT) and examined the Human Skeletal Repository records. Unfortunately, I found 11 individuals with known names or dates of deaths or which were known to the donor in life. The research suggested these remains should not be at the university.</p>
<p>Fast forward to 2018 after a lengthy process of figuring out a way forward. With the university’s Office of Inclusivity and Change we have embarked on the initial phase of the restitution project. Of the 11 unethically procured sets of remains, nine are from the town of Sutherland in the Northern Cape. We decided to start there. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300874/original/file-20191108-194624-78w3pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sutherland in the Northern Cape, where the skeletal remains were from.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The records indicate that in the 1920s a farm owner dug up remains from the worker burial ground on a Kruisrivier farm and brought them to UCT. The records further indicate that some of these individuals had been hunter-gatherers who were captured and forced into labour on the farm. They state one was possibly murdered, others were elderly, and some died of illness.</p>
<p>My focus was to return them to their resting place because the way these people were brought to the university was wrong. I never imagined to what extent the Sutherland families would bring me on a journey with them to share knowledge from the past.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300869/original/file-20191108-194646-cclowz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A visit to the farm in Sutherland where the remains had originally been buried.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What was it that made this so particular in terms of a model to seek redress?</strong></p>
<p>I have reflected on why this process was so unique and positive. What did we do differently? My feeling is there are three key aspects which shifted power and blame. When I informed my seniors, the immediate response was to place a moratorium on access. To physically seal and remove these individuals from the repository and place the power to study and unseal in the hands of the families. </p>
<p>The second moment was when I was introduced to Deputy Vice Chancellor of Transformation Professor Loretta Feris. An environmental lawyer, she has a passion for social justice, and agreed to lead the project. Through her UCT publicly took responsibility for the injustice in 1920 and committed to addressing it through a meaningful process of restitution. </p>
<p>The third key was the inclusion of a public participation advisor, Doreen Februarie. She went into the community to locate relevant stakeholders and lay the foundation for the community engagement. She built trust for the start of our conversation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300868/original/file-20191108-194646-x68mj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A visit by the UCT academics to Sutherland for one of a series of community engagements to find a way forward for the bones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How was life breathed back into the stories of the bones?</strong></p>
<p>When we informed the community of descendants of the remains, it was painful and raised a lot of questions. They asked for as much information as possible. On behalf of the families I compiled an interdisciplinary team to answer the questions the families had asked. It was agreed that this would encompass the history (Professor Nigel Penn) and archaeology (Professor Simon Hall) of the original cemetery. Of the remains, it would include biological reports (myself and Dr Tinashe Mutsvangwa), stable isotope analysis (Professor Judith Sealy), DNA analyses (Dr Stephan Schiffels and PhD student Joscha Gertzinger) and facial reconstruction (Prof Caroline Wilkinson and PhD student Kathryn Smith). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300872/original/file-20191108-194665-1n81fze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Project member Kathryn Smith showing family the reconstructed facial images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How did the facial reconstructions enrich the project?</strong></p>
<p>The incredible scientific information has provided a story for each of these people’s lives. Facial reconstruction has brought them to life for all of us. They are a stark reminder that people of the past are people just like you and I. This is obvious of course, but to see them with your own eyes brings a humanity to the story that was unexpected. These nine individuals are more than just individuals, they are representatives of what life was like for San and Khoi people in Sutherland in the 1800s. Life was hard physically and emotionally. We see characters in these people, we see perseverance, resolve and strength of character. They shared a life experience as labourers on Kruisrivier farm. Three individuals have evidence of squatting facets, a sitting position that was culturally and symbolically important for San people – and also for burying their dead in a way that was culturally significant. These two pieces of evidence alone are a statement. The farmer could take their freedom and force them to work but could not take their spirit and culture. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300875/original/file-20191108-194637-t5tx90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ancestral blessing ceremony was part of the restorative justice process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>There were ceremonies to engage with the ancestors and try to find spiritual restitution as well?</strong></p>
<p>The process of restitution will continue to be a journey. The families visited the gravesite that the individuals were removed from. I provided a biological report on a visit to the community. A blessing ceremony was held at UCT in partnership with traditional leaders. The families also viewed the remains in private, then invited some of us in to ask questions. This moment was important for closure and understanding. Traditional leaders from Cape Town have gone into the community in a knowledge-sharing exercise. I have been involved in community outreach and done educational scientific outreach in the local schools. </p>
<p>During each visit to Sutherland we came to know the families better and understand their desire for knowledge. A quick look at the <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.za/Tourism-g1601473-Sutherland_Northern_Cape-Vacations.html">tourism industry in Sutherland</a> today speaks to colonial history, to space and to <a href="http://www.karoohoogland.gov.za/sutherland-tourist-attractions/">star gazing</a>. Where is the deep historical recognition for San and Khoi people in this area? It is missing. The Sutherland families and communities want their history to be acknowledged and preserved for their children. These nine individuals have brought us together and provided a platform of opportunity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Gibbon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When the University of Cape Town discovered skeletons in its archive that had been unethically obtained and used, they set about restoring justice to the bones and the community they came from.
Victoria Gibbon, Associate Professor in Biological Anthropology, Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124259
2019-09-30T19:45:19Z
2019-09-30T19:45:19Z
Buried beneath the trees: a plan to solve our shortage of cemetery space
<p>There’s a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/forget-housing-grave-space-is-the-new-millennial-headache">lack of new cemetery space</a> in parts of Australia but we could solve that problem by burying the dead among newly planted vegetation belts near our towns and cities.</p>
<p>Burial Belt is a proposal we’ve been working on for reinventing the Australian cemetery landscape by creating near-limitless land for burial. Our idea is currently on exhibition at the <a href="http://oslotriennale.no/en/aboutoat2019">Oslo Architecture Triennale</a>, in Norway. </p>
<p>This new approach to burial would feature native trees rather than rows of headstones.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/housing-the-dead-what-happens-when-a-city-runs-out-of-space-70121">Housing the dead: what happens when a city runs out of space?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>It would reforest cleared land and provide an alternative to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth">high-emissions livestock grazing</a>. It could even prevent suburban sprawl by safeguarding green space in perpetuity. </p>
<p>All it requires is a new way of thinking about what happens to our bodies when we die.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294690/original/file-20190930-185369-1uzbli3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Burial space is running out in some Australian cemeteries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quirky/6527021105/">Flickr/Wendy Harman</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>After life</h2>
<p>Traditional burial in a local cemetery was the norm for most Australians until late in the 20th century. Today an increasing proportion of Australians choose cremation.</p>
<p>Unlike burial, cremation seems clean, efficient and free of the emotional weight of a sombre headstone in a grid of other graves. Cremation doesn’t have to take up space and ashes can be stored in a special place or dispersed into a favourite landscape. </p>
<p>Cremation now accounts for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-27/green-death-funeral-environment/10994330">more than 70% of all Australian interments</a>. That is not surprising when you consider that the average cost of cremation is <a href="https://www.gatheredhere.com.au/burial-cremation-everything-need-know/">less than half that of burial</a>.</p>
<p>Soaring land costs and dwindling reserves of existing cemetery space have also contributed to the high cost of burial.</p>
<p>Australian burial plots are among <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/money-markets/the-most-expensive-land-in-australia-might-be-graves-heres-the-problem-20180627-h11wzp-441795/">the most valuable real estate</a> in the country. </p>
<h2>What else goes up in smoke?</h2>
<p>Most people we speak to are surprised to learn that cremation is an energy-intensive and toxic process.</p>
<p>The energy consumed by a single cremation is equal to about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/oct/18/ethicalmoney.climatechange">one person’s average monthly domestic use</a>.</p>
<p>Each <a href="https://www.foreground.com.au/environment/urban-burial-cemetery-landscapes/">cremation</a> releases on average about 50kg of CO2 and other toxins.</p>
<p>When you consider both the economic and environmental costs of cremation, the obvious solution is to provide more affordable burial space.</p>
<p>But with scarce land available for this purpose close to our city centres, any solution is contingent on persuading large numbers of people to not only return to burial, but to reconsider the entire cemetery experience. </p>
<h2>A more natural burial</h2>
<p>The Burial Belt proposal relies on a societal shift from traditional burial and cremation to natural burial. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/11/pushing-up-trees-is-natural-burial-the-answer-to-crowded-cemeteries">Natural burial</a> does away with embalming, wooden coffins, concrete shafts and expanses of tarmac.</p>
<p>Bodies are placed in direct contact with the soil and buried within reach of microbes, where they can then truly return to the earth.</p>
<p>Natural burial is also <a href="https://www.gatheredhere.com.au/green-funerals-australia/">much cheaper to implement than traditional burial</a>. </p>
<p>Where would this take place? That’s where the Burial Belt proposal comes in.</p>
<p>Our future burial parkland already exists, just beyond the outermost suburban lots that ring Australian cities. This border land is currently occupied by sheep and cattle pastures but is increasingly being rezoned and amalgamated into an ever-expanding urban footprint.</p>
<p>Converting this territory into burial parkland, rather than housing subdivision, would protect whatever wildlife and vegetation remains in this cleared and denuded landscape, while curtailing urban sprawl.</p>
<h2>Preserved forever</h2>
<p>The key element of this proposed transformation is that, while natural burial land quickly becomes indistinguishable from bushland, current legislation provides for preservation of cemetery spaces in perpetuity.</p>
<p>Incorporating burial within the forest establishes a covenant over the revegetated grazing land that cannot be reversed. No more urban sprawl.</p>
<p>Fields and allotments would be individually acquired by public or private entities and converted into burial forest. Adjoining sections of forest would be gradually amalgamated into a single Burial Belt, a linear green swathe that halts further development and protects agricultural land and remnant habitat on the other side.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294474/original/file-20190926-51434-1co1tt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of a burial ring at the edge of a clearing in a proposed Burial Belt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Other Architects</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From an architectural point of view, there are many ways this general idea could be implemented to suit different site conditions and communities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/increasing-tree-cover-may-be-like-a-superfood-for-community-mental-health-119930">Increasing tree cover may be like a 'superfood' for community mental health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the current proposal, large clearings are carved out of the immensity of the forest, with smaller hollows containing intimately-scaled burial spaces dispersed around the edges of these clearings. </p>
<p>Access could be provided via boardwalks and other temporary facilities similar to those found in national parks. The proposed forest cemetery requires little upkeep. Rather than returning periodically to sweep away leaves or lay flowers on a loved one’s traditional grave, visitors are free to let nature do its work. </p>
<p>There is no reason why the Burial Belt idea could not be widely implemented by local operators and councils as an effective method of funding habitat regeneration while providing for the community’s long term burial needs.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article draws on UTS Master of Architecture design studios conducted by David Neustein and Grace Mortlock, and specific research contributions from UTS students Rowan Lear and Sora Graham.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Burial Belt is a proposal by Open Architects, of which David Neustein is a director.</span></em></p>
With space in our cemeteries running out, we could bury the dead in new forest developments that would bring green space to our urban areas.
David Neustein, Associate, School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120639
2019-07-24T10:22:59Z
2019-07-24T10:22:59Z
As burial costs rise, Britons are struggling in funeral poverty – here’s what support is available
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285349/original/file-20190723-110179-kc4j8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C117%2C5571%2C3412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The loss of a loved one is difficult, but should the loss have an impact on your finances? The fees associated with a funeral are rising drastically, pushing people to find other ways to avoid debts associated with funeral costs. </p>
<p>An average funeral <a href="https://www.royallondon.com/siteassets/site-docs/media-centre/national-funeral-costs-index-2018.pdf">costs £3,757</a>, and part of this cost is the increasing price in cremation and burial fees. Cremation fees, on average, cost £792 – an increase of 4.9% from 2017. Burial fees have increased by 6.1% to £1,960. This has risen higher than inflation – and these fees are before you start considering the costs of a service, flowers or even a coffin. </p>
<p>Now a new Children’s Funeral Fund has launched, offering <a href="https://www.gov.uk/child-funeral-costs">a package of support</a> that means bereaved parents will get some financial support for their child’s funeral, regardless of their income. </p>
<p>It comes after the government’s recent announcement that applications to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/funeral-payments">Funeral Expenses Payment</a>, designed to help bereaved families with the cost of funerals, will be <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bereaved-families-to-receive-funeral-payments-quicker">processed quicker</a>. The date of a funeral will no longer need to be set before funds will be processed, and an estimated date for the funeral service will be enough. </p>
<p>To receive a Funeral Expenses Payment you need to be in receipt of a means-tested benefit, for example Universal Credit, Income Support, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit. Entitlement is not built around benefits alone. The claimant needs to have a qualifying relationship with the deceased such as a spouse or close family member, and it needs to be “reasonable” in the eyes of the government that you would be responsible for funeral costs. </p>
<p>The payment provides help to cover transport, burial or cremation fees and medical fees. It also allows for other funeral expenses such as a coffin, minister’s fees or flowers – but this is limited to £700. </p>
<p>So while changes to the speed of processing applications will help people identify whether they can get state support, it will only help those who are entitled and doesn’t go far enough with the elements of a funeral that make it personal. </p>
<p>There is a second way the government helps with funeral costs – called the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/budgeting-help-benefits">Social Fund Budgeting Loan</a>. This advance – which ranges in size for single people or couples – is available to those who meet strict eligibility criteria, built around entitlement of selected benefits. The money is then recovered via deductions to those benefits. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285350/original/file-20190723-110158-19m0qil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">State support for funeral costs doesn’t go very far.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Koldunov/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Limited support</h2>
<p>These schemes provide some financial support but the design excludes those who are not entitled to benefits. It also creates financial hardship for those on benefits who may find their payments reduced in the longer term as they pay loans back. As a result of the rising fees related to funerals, it often means there is a substantial and sudden debt, creating funeral poverty.</p>
<p>And even for those who are entitled for support, the government’s wider financial support package does not cover the whole cost of a funeral. Within the Funeral Expenses Payment, the fees for cremation or burial are met. But the maximum award for other costs beyond these fees is £700, a figure that the government hasn’t increased for 16 years and doesn’t rise with inflation. The average spend on a coffin alone is just under £1,000, meaning that the £700 really doesn’t go very far. </p>
<p>Often, the people responsible for the costs of celebrating a loved one’s life take on additional credit or borrow from friends and family. In some circumstances, this can create additional financial pressure for people who are already struggling financially.</p>
<h2>Other ways to pay</h2>
<p>To meet these costs, there’s been an increase in crowdfunding for funerals. Sites such as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/funeral-crowdfunding-costs-cremation-death-state-support-poverty-gofundme-a8352606.html">GoFundMe</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38638197">JustGiving</a> have seen an increase in people relying on the kindness of strangers to help with funeral costs. </p>
<p>People also seek out advice from organisations such as <a href="https://quakersocialaction.org.uk/we-can-help/helping-funerals/down-earth">Down to Earth</a>, which helps people to source charitable funds and explores options to help deal with funeral debt. </p>
<p>Another option is to hold a public health funeral, also known as a “paupers funeral”. This is a no-frills service, that doesn’t include flowers, viewings or transport for family members. You cannot choose a time, or a date and the burials may take place in an unmarked grave that may be shared with other people. But a growing number of people are choosing this option. A freedom of information request by the insurance company Royal London <a href="https://www.royallondon.com/media/press-releases/2019/government-cuts-forced-more-bereaved-families-into-poverty/">revealed there</a> were 3,835 public health funerals in the year to April 2018, costing local authorities £5.4m. Of these, 30% were due to the bereaved being unable to afford the cost of the funeral. </p>
<p>The support from the state is not extended to those on a low income, and for those who are not entitled to benefits, the government support is not available. They are left with the full cost of increasing fees and trying to find alternative ways of funding a funeral, relying more on the kindness of strangers than the support of the state.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Booton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The processing time for the government’s Funeral Expenses Payment is decreasing, but the costs related to a funeral are still high.
Kevin Booton, Lecturer in Social Welfare Law, Policy and Advice Practice, Staffordshire University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/114814
2019-04-26T10:51:25Z
2019-04-26T10:51:25Z
What the Greek tragedy Antigone can teach us about the dangers of extremism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270794/original/file-20190424-121241-2n2fez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A scene from playwright Roy Williams' modern adaptation of Antigone for the Pilot Theatre.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pilottheatre/15287579905/in/photostream/">Flickr/Robert Day photo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a Greek tragedy written in the middle of the fifth century B.C., three teenagers struggle with a question that could be asked now: What happens when a ruler declares that those who resist his dictates are enemies of the state, and that ruler has as many supporters as he has detractors? </p>
<p>The story of <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/antigone.html">Sophocles’ Antigone</a> and the accursed royal family of Thebes belongs to the mythical pre-history of Greece. </p>
<p>Greek tragedy portrays in broad strokes the cruelties that take place within families and cities, but keeps them in the safe distance of the mythical past. The mythical past provided a safe space to present contemporary problems without outright political affiliation.</p>
<p>The play, named after its young heroine, mirrors the state of America’s current disunion: Political and moral views are framed in terms of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/im-not-a-traitor-you-are-political-argument-from-the-founding-fathers-to-todays-partisans-111130">fight between patriot and traitor</a>, defenders of civic order and its enemies, and law and conscience.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270803/original/file-20190424-121237-fj4mlf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antigone confronted with the dead Polynices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Mythology/en/Polynices.html">Painting by Nikiforos Lytras; National Gallery and Alexander Soutsos Museum, Athens Greece</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shocking decree</h2>
<p>The play begins only hours after the end of a civil war and is set in Thebes’ royal household.</p>
<p>Oedipus, the Greek king, is Antigone’s, Etocles’ and Polyneices’ father. </p>
<p>After Oedipus was banished from the city, Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, were meant to share the kingship. But Eteocles exiled Polyneices and made himself sole ruler. Before his death, Oedipus cursed his two sons, saying that they would die at each other’s hands.</p>
<p>Polyneices returned with a small band of warriors; Eteocles fought him with the city’s army. As their father said would happen, the brothers died at each other’s hands. Polyneices’ allies were driven off, leaving his corpse outside the city walls. </p>
<p>With both heirs to the throne dead, their uncle Creon declared himself king, as was his right.</p>
<p>Creon then makes a shocking decree: No one is to perform funeral rites for Polyneices, because he was a traitor. His body is to be left rotting in the sun and preyed upon by vultures and scavenging dogs. Anyone caught trying to bury him will be executed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271081/original/file-20190425-121216-113g3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Oedipus Cursing His Son, Polynices’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.61391.html">Henry Fuseli, painter; Paul Mellon Collection, National Gallery of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Family vs. civic order</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.rhm.uni-koeln.de/126/Rosivach.pdf">Refusing burial rites to traitors</a> was not unheard of in Sophocles’ time; it was an accepted means of quashing sympathizers. </p>
<p>But not burying a relative was different. </p>
<p>Creon’s situation was out of the ordinary. As head of the family, he was obliged by religious custom to oversee the burial of his nephew. But in the larger civic context of the country he led, he could refuse those rites to a traitor. Creon chose to maintain civic order, as he alone saw fit.</p>
<p>We first see Antigone as she rushes to tell her sister Ismene the news. She is sure that Ismene will join her in disobeying the decree, for the gods are offended by a body unburied; without a proper burial, their brother’s spirit cannot enter the underworld. And, most of all, he is their brother, traitor or not, and it is their duty as his remaining family members to bury him.</p>
<p>Yet Ismene begs her not to defy their uncle Creon. We are just girls, she says. We can’t fight the decree. The dead will not judge us. We will die; what good will that do? </p>
<p>Antigone turns on her sister immediately and says, “You - go ahead and dishonor what the gods honor, if you think it’s best.” </p>
<p>Antigone tells Ismene that she hates her, and rushes offstage to carry out her plan: to go outside the city walls, where her brother’s body lies, and cover it with a few handfuls of dust. It’s the best she can do. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270825/original/file-20190424-121249-13qnzbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sophocles, the tragedian who wrote Antigone, from a cast of a bust in the Pushkin Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5573891">Shakko - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘I am impious’</h2>
<p>When Creon finds out what Antigone has done, he has her brought before him, and declares that she must die. </p>
<p>She is defiant and scornful. Her challenge to his authority only increases Creon’s resolve. When his son Haemon, Antigone’s fiancé, tries to reason with him, he refuses to listen. </p>
<p>Ismene, now remorseful, claims that she buried the body herself, to which Antigone responds with contempt. </p>
<p>In their solo crusades for justice, both Creon and Antigone ignore the grief of their loved ones.</p>
<p>Creon orders that Antigone be taken to a cave and left to starve; she is led away. He then receives word from a prophet that the gods will punish him for putting a living soul underground and keeping a dead body above ground.</p>
<p>Creon dismisses the prophecy, but the chorus of citizens convinces him to go save Antigone and bury Polyneices. He rushes to her tomb, too late. He finds two dead bodies there. Antigone has hung herself, and Creon’s son Haemon has fallen on his sword. When Creon’s wife hears the news of her son’s death, she too kills herself.</p>
<p>“Lead me away,” a stunned Creon says to the city elders. “I am worse than useless; I am impious.”</p>
<h2>Danger in the extreme</h2>
<p>Creon started from a position of defending the civil order: Traitors must be punished, and those who show love for them are equally traitors. </p>
<p>But his principles lead to the deaths of many, including his son, Haemon, who was not a rebel, only a young man in love. </p>
<p>Haemon was a moderate, who, with Ismene, tried to persuade Antigone and Creon to drop their intransigence. Ultimately, however, they too were dragged over the edge into chaos and violence. Even Haemon’s mother, who appears on stage only briefly, becomes a victim. </p>
<p>Every character in the play was forced to enter the arena of good versus evil, either because they loved each other, or they loved their own convictions. </p>
<p>It is impossible for any character to remain in the middle – they are forced to the extremes, where death or grief are either chosen or thrust on them. </p>
<h2>‘Moderates suffered most’</h2>
<p>What can be learned from the tragedy of Antigone?</p>
<p>At least this: When fellow citizens become enemies, their bonds of friendship and family are weakened if not destroyed. When primary identity is reduced to “us” and “them,” the definition of justice narrows. It becomes simply what helps “us” and harms “them.” </p>
<p>When a leader urges citizens to identify his enemies as enemies of the state, what those citizens may end up having most in common with each other is anger, fear and mutual contempt.</p>
<p>And what of the Ismenes and Haemons of the world, those who try to dissuade others from rash actions and de-escalate tensions? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thucydides-Greek-historian">historian Thucydides</a>, Sophocles’ younger contemporary, observed that when a community is at war with itself, “moderates suffered most, because they were subject to attack by both factions.” </p>
<p>Sophocles offers another lesson in Antigone. Namely, that a single person in power, if he persuades or frightens enough people, can cause the suffering of innocents and the loss of institutions and customs on which civil order rely.</p>
<p>It is a lesson we have witnessed more than once, in living memory. </p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the amount of time Haemon’s mother spends on stage.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth A. Bobrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A play written in the fifth century B.C. mirrors America’s current disunion: Political and moral views are framed in terms of a fight between patriot and traitor, law and conscience, and chaos and order.
Elizabeth A. Bobrick, Visiting Scholar in Classical Studies, Wesleyan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101526
2018-08-16T01:36:08Z
2018-08-16T01:36:08Z
A recipe for mummy preservation existed 1,500 years before the Pharaohs
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232196/original/file-20180816-2891-idv9nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Turin mummy was deliberately preserved, not just desiccated by dry, hot sands. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">R. Bianucci</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ancient Egypt continues to throw up one fabulous surprise after another. </p>
<p>Today my colleagues and I published <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-archaeological-science">our analysis</a> of an intact Egyptian prehistoric body (from around 3700-3500 BC) that had been housed in a museum in Turin, Italy, since 1901. The results provide strong evidence that embalming was taking place 1,500 years earlier than previously accepted.</p>
<p>The dead man was previously assumed to have been naturally mummified by the desiccating action of the hot, dry desert sand. But now we know it was deliberately preserved. </p>
<p>Together with our <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103608">previous research</a>, this new information tells us that the prehistoric Egyptians – those living 1,500 or more years before the Pharaohs – already had knowledge of the processes required to preserve the body, and practised a developed religious belief system about the afterlife. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-lincolns-embrace-of-embalming-birthed-the-american-funeral-industry-86196">How Lincoln's embrace of embalming birthed the American funeral industry</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232198/original/file-20180816-2906-1h40j2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mummy was stored in a museum in Turin, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-archaeological-science">Journal of Egyptian Archeology</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We had hints</h2>
<p>Prior to this new study, <a href="https://theconversation.com/gummy-mummies-egyptians-used-a-millennia-old-embalming-recipe-30454">our analysis of funerary wrappings</a> from prehistoric bodies from sites in central Egypt proved that the ancient Egyptians who lived before the time of the pharaohs used some body preservation techniques. </p>
<p>Reports of pellets of resin in pouches with the bodies in early burials excavated at prehistoric sites at Badari and Mostagedda in Middle Egypt (c. 4500-3350 BC) had made me wonder whether they were already using resin in a rudimentary form of mummification. </p>
<p>Resin is an substance harvested from certain trees, particularly pine, and is a preservative component of embalming mixtures.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gummy-mummies-egyptians-used-a-millennia-old-embalming-recipe-30454">Gummy mummies: Egyptians used a millennia-old embalming recipe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our previous work we did not have whole bodies – only small fragments of linen in British museums. The pieces of fabric were the only surviving evidence the bodies had been wrapped, and had been donated by the excavators in the early 20th century in return for funding for excavation. </p>
<p>Working with an <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/research-staff/stephen-buckley/">archeological chemist</a>, my colleague Ron Oldfield and I identified <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103608">resin in the wrappings</a>. </p>
<p>But we didn’t have any further samples to expand this work – until now. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232201/original/file-20180816-2918-axbcxo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We don’t know what killed the man referred to as ‘the Turin mummy’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">R. Bianucci</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preparing for the afterlife</h2>
<p>The central tenet of ancient Egyptian mummification was preservation of a perfect body so that it could enter into the afterlife as a complete entity. If a crocodile had bitten off a leg, a wooden prosthesis would be substituted. </p>
<p>The wrapped bodies at prehistoric sites generally had not come under intense scrutiny when excavated, because in the 19th and early 20th centuries interest was overwhelmingly in the artefacts. Furthermore, there had been no reason to believe that the prehistoric Egyptians were using any preservative balms on their dead.</p>
<p>Like the British, the Italians were conducting their own excavations to fill the <a href="https://www.museoegizio.it/en/">Museo Egizio</a> in Turin. Perhaps the best-known archaeologist is Ernesto Schiaparelli, director of the museum between 1895 and 1928. </p>
<p>Schiaparelli went on a number of missions to Egypt to excavate and purchase mummies and artefacts from antiquities dealers, including the prehistoric body in this current study (identified as “Turin S. 293, RCGE 16550”), bought between 1900 and 1901.</p>
<p>It is only one of 20 bodies of this period (c. 3600 BC) in international museums. Although there are few written records on the body’s provenance, Gebelein in Middle Egypt is the most probable source.</p>
<h2>A recipe for preservation</h2>
<p>In 2014, a research grant from Macquarie University afforded a unique opportunity to forensically examine this Turin mummy. </p>
<p>Working with an international team, we took minute samples of textile and skin for biochemical analysis, radiocarbon dating, textile analysis and DNA analysis of pathogenic bacteria. </p>
<p>The mummy had not undergone conservation in the museum which meant that contamination was minimal, making him an ideal subject for scientific investigation. The downside of not having been conserved and consolidated is that he is extremely fragile and damaged.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232199/original/file-20180816-2912-1q049y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A close-up of linen fibres the Turin mummy was wrapped in for burial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-archaeological-science">Ron Oldfield</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chemical analysis of the residues on the textile wrappings from the torso and wrist using a technique known as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed the presence of a plant oil or animal fat, a sugar/gum, a conifer resin and an aromatic plant extract. </p>
<p>The resin and aromatic plant extracts are the two main antibacterial components that would have repelled insects and preserved the soft tissue underneath. Chemical signatures indicate gentle heating, so it was indeed a “recipe” that was probably applied by dipping the linen into the melted mixture and then wrapping.</p>
<h2>Egyptian ingenuity</h2>
<p>Radiocarbon dating of linen – one sample each from the body and the basket of fragments accompanying the body – gave a date range of around 3700-3500 BC. Both samples shared the same early spinning technology observed in Egyptian linen between about 5000 BC and 3600 BC, when a momentous change in the direction of the spin took place.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232200/original/file-20180816-2891-io5fq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Close up of basket fibres found with the Turin mummy, indicating a ‘prehistoric’ spin direction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-archaeological-science">Ron Oldfield</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>No pathogenic DNA was detected by metagenomics, either because it had not survived the environmental conditions in Egypt or the museum (which until recently was not climate-controlled). </p>
<p>As a result, we do not know whether he died from an infectious disease. Furthermore, his extremely fragile state prevented him from being moved for X-ray analysis.</p>
<p>Together with our previous research, the information gleaned from this complete mummy tells us that the prehistoric Egyptians already had knowledge of the processes required to preserve the body, as well as an already developed religious belief system about the afterlife. </p>
<p>They had access to resins from the Eastern Mediterranean, suggesting long-distance trade. That similar components were used in the balms in burials 200 km apart, and indeed continued to be used in similar proportions by the pharaonic period embalmers when their skills were at their peak some 2,500 years later, shows the enduring nature of ancient Egyptian ingenuity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jana Jones receives funding from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.</span></em></p>
A body in an Italian museum reveals that Egyptians living 1,500 or more years before the Pharaohs already knew how to preserve bodies.
Jana Jones, Research Fellow in Ancient History, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/70121
2017-01-04T18:44:56Z
2017-01-04T18:44:56Z
Housing the dead: what happens when a city runs out of space?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150736/original/image-20161219-24265-l0saj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of the major cemeteries in Australian cities, including Sydney's Waverley Cemetery, date back to the 1800s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Ryan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you know where and how you want to be buried? </p>
<p>Will you choose an elaborate Victorian-style headstone, or do you prefer a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/australia-gps-graves_n_7190576">“green” burial</a>, with only a GPS tracking signal indicating your location? Or you may elect to purchase a <a href="https://urnabios.com/">Bios Urn</a>, a 100% biodegradable capsule you plant in the ground with cremated ashes and a seed of your choice which will one day grow into a tree.</p>
<p>Issues of mortality and access to burial space are not typically dinner party conversations or at the top of government agendas. And, until recently, its priority as a future challenge in planning has been virtually non-existent.</p>
<p>Sydney’s 2014 strategic plan, <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-Your-Area/Sydney/A-Plan-for-Growing-Sydney">A Plan for Growing Sydney</a>, recognises the need for studies of cemetery capacity and demand to identify future land requirements. Such studies are likely to reveal spatial variances across larger cities due to differences in age and religious and cultural communities.</p>
<p>The last major changes to the cemetery landscape in Australian cities <a href="http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/death_and_dying_in_nineteenth_century_sydney">occurred in the late 1800s</a>. At this time, the <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/sydneys-history/people-and-places/old-sydney-burial-ground">crowded and unsanitary conditions</a> of churchyard burial grounds required the dedication of considerable burial land on what was once the urban fringe. </p>
<p>Many of these cemeteries continue to serve society’s burial needs. For the past century, there has been no pressing need to plan cities for the dead. It therefore comes as no surprise that consideration of a cemetery as essential public infrastructure has fallen through the cracks.</p>
<p>We have reached a point where this must change. The lifespans of existing cemeteries in major Australian cities are severely limited. In Sydney, according to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, the metropolitan region’s 310,000 to 330,000 available plots will likely <a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/659594/cemeteries-and-crematoria-nsw-activity-report-2041-15.pdf">be exhausted by 2050</a>.</p>
<p>Annual numbers of deaths are predicted to double between 2011 and 2051. Despite a <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/cremation-favoured-in-tough-economy-20130903-je3o4">shift towards cremations</a> over the last century (Sydney’s <a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/630623/cemeteries-and-crematoria-nsw-strategic-plan.pdf">cremation rate is 66%</a>), our cities’ diverse religious and cultural communities will always require space for burial.</p>
<p>This issue raises two important considerations. Where will we bury? And how will we bury? </p>
<h2>Where will we bury?</h2>
<p>At some 280 hectares, Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery is the <a href="http://www.rookwoodcemetery.com.au/about-us">largest cemetery in the southern hemisphere</a>. The allocation of such sizeable land only 15 kilometres from the CBD is unimaginable today. Equally as inconceivable is the location of <a href="http://www.waverleycemetery.com/">Waverley Cemetery</a>, which clings to the ocean cliffs of Sydney’s eastern suburbs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151308/original/image-20161221-4093-1dbr34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Waverley Cemetery occupies a coastal site in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, the sort of location that simply isn’t available for a new cemetery today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Ryan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Significant barriers to cemetery development in urban areas include high land values, limited available land, restrictive zoning and a more pressing need to house the living. The landlocked nature of many existing cemeteries suggests no choice except for the dedication of additional land on the urban fringe. </p>
<p>Sydney has changed considerably since Rookwood Cemetery was established in 1868. While planners are continually rethinking how we design for housing, transport and employment to meet changing needs, we are yet to contemplate a new life for the cemetery landscape.</p>
<h2>How will we bury?</h2>
<p>The need to plan for the shortage of burial space presents a timely opportunity to reconsider how we bury. Recent <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjqv9DUgYTRAhVBH5QKHWzyAFAQFghOMAk&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fnews%2Flatest-news%2Fgrave-recycling-laws-pass-nsw-parliament%2Fstory-fn3dxiwe-1226764671053&usg=AFQjCNElG50KhnoZPN5S_uWKOPjjcRs5OA">legislative changes</a> in NSW introduced provisions for the re-use of an older grave once the tenure period expires. Renewable tenure creates the opportunity to provide ongoing cemetery capacity. </p>
<p>Renewable tenure is uncommon in Australia. The majority of burial plots are still sold in perpetuity, meaning a grave remains untouched forever. </p>
<p>Have you ever considered that your grave could later become someone else’s? Would you buy a grave for you parents for a limited number of years, or would you choose a grave that you could visit for the rest of your life and your children’s lives? </p>
<p>These are difficult questions to ponder. Additionally, disturbing a personal and sacred space for the dead typically does not sit well with the public. A grave is often thought of as a “final resting place”. </p>
<p>An important question is whether the bereaved seek comfort in memorialising the deceased in perpetuity, or is a physical space for mourning only required for an initial period of time. Considering that grave visitations often cease after 40 to 50 years, is it reasonable to assume that the significance of a grave varies over time? </p>
<p>When the opinions of younger adults (aged 20-30) on grave re-use were surveyed by one of the authors, 72% of respondents indicated that they were unaware of this practice. However, respondents recognised links to several urban issues, including sustainable land consumption and growth pressures in cities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151311/original/image-20161221-4063-9diyte.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A natural burial park has been established in the grounds of the Catholic Kemps Creek Cemetery in Sydney’s west.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.sydneynaturalburialparks.com.au/">Sydney Natural Burial Park/Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Respondents also expressed interest in other burial trends, such as <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/grave-new-world--natural-burials-coming-to-the-act-20150715-gicxib.html">natural burial</a> parks, where physical memorials are limited and the natural environment remains largely unaltered. Despite a discussion on burial practices, 68% said they wanted to be cremated. If cremation rates do rise in the future, this could essentially mean less urban land is needed for burials.</p>
<p>A conversation about burial preferences and new burial trends will improve understanding and provide direction on the future demand for burial land and the future form of the cemetery landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Ryan is working as a town planning consultant on future cemetery developments in the Sydney metropolitan region.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Steinmetz-Weiss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Most big city cemeteries in Australia date back to the 1800s, so we need to consider our burial options before we reach the point when the number of deaths exceeds the available cemetery plots.
Kate Ryan, Researcher, UNSW Sydney
Christine Steinmetz-Weiss, Associate Professor, School of Built Environment, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/62789
2016-08-09T11:58:30Z
2016-08-09T11:58:30Z
Breathing new life into the funeral business
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132804/original/image-20160802-9761-n30hxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Death of the salesmen.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A funeral, the ceremonial disposal of a body, has two key elements – the body and the ceremony. And each of these has its own associated merchants selling goods or services in the important business of dealing with death.</p>
<p>“Hardware merchants” – funeral directors, cemeteries and crematoria – provide goods such as coffins, hearses, graves and cremators. These provide for the body’s storage, viewing, transport and ultimate disposal through burial or fire. “Software merchants” on the other hand provide a service – the ceremony – and comprise ministers and priests of various religions, and a fast increasing number of celebrants representing no faith community.</p>
<p>When a death occurs, the grieving family usually deal initially with a hardware merchant, the funeral director. They then subcontract out the body’s burial or cremation to other hardware merchants, and the ceremony to a software merchant. </p>
<p>This structure, with the funeral director as the family’s first contact, was developed in Britain in the 19th century when it was eminently fit for purpose. The millions of people moving from the countryside to industrial towns needed to find their place in society. They used <a href="http://jsah.ucpress.edu/content/43/1/91.1">housing</a> and <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/death-heaven-and-the-victorians/oclc/446525">funerals</a> to demonstrate their social and economic respectability. </p>
<p>The religious service at the time required little thought. Anglicans had the Anglican rite, Methodists the Methodist service, Catholics the Catholic mass, and within each, there was little variation. Instead, the major choices concerned hardware. As the funeral was a display of economic status, the key questions revolved around things like the appearance of the coffin and the number of horses. The undertaker, who advised on these elements and provided much of them himself, was therefore the appropriate person to make the arrangements.</p>
<p>Today, however, this kind of status insecurity and adherence to religion, are in marked decline. Many families know where they fit socially and do not need funerals to demonstrate this. And <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781137506559">far fewer people are committed to any religion</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, many funerals are now designed to display not the family’s respectability but the deceased’s individuality. They focus not on looking forward to the next life, but on looking back to celebrate the unique life that was lived. For such occasions then, the main choices concern not hardware but software. These families don’t care about fancy coffins and black cars. They care about the ceremony being meaningful and personal.</p>
<p>Yet for most of them, the first task when organising a funeral is still to approach a funeral director, who advises not only on hardware but also on software - on which they may have little expertise. Choices on the service are often made before the family even gets to meet the minister or celebrant.</p>
<p>And of the <a href="http://www.royallondon.com/about/media/news/2015/october/uk-funeral-costs-rise-as-rapidly-as-house-prices-/">average £3,700 cost</a> of a “basic funeral”, only about £200 goes to this celebrant, together with perhaps £400 for hire of the ceremony venue and printing the ceremony programme. Where does the rest go? Predominantly on hardware and its overheads, and care of the body. </p>
<p>So organisationally and economically, the British funeral retains its Victorian material-based structure, even though increasing numbers today value ceremony more.</p>
<h2>It’s your funeral</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, however, the funeral industry has witnessed significant new products and services. <a href="http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk/index.php?page=natural-burial-grounds">Natural burial grounds</a>, companies providing <a href="http://www.colourfulcoffins.com/">personalised coffins</a> and <a href="https://funeralcelebrants.org.uk/">freelance celebrants</a> have all succeeded as businesses. But that is mainly because these entrepreneurs have accepted their role as subcontractors to the funeral director, who gains by having more services to offer the family.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Life and death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-391359181/stock-photo-cemetery.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The innovations which have struggled are those that challenge the funeral director’s position as contractor-in-chief. More recently, however, some <a href="http://www.arkafunerals.co.uk/">new start-up funeral businesses</a> discuss both ceremony and hardware with their clients from the beginning, aiming to offer a seamless service. Likewise, some established funeral firms now provide their own in-house celebrant, in order to provide a similar all-in-one service.</p>
<p>A celebrant could also arrange for the body to be transferred from the place of death direct to the crematorium. This allows a ceremony in the presence of the coffin, but without the expense of hearses and cars or an intermediate place to store the body. </p>
<p>Another innovation gaining popularity is direct cremation, in which the body is cremated without any ceremony and with no mourners attending. David Bowie’s direct cremation cost a <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/david-bowie-been-secretly-cremated-7174860">reported US$700</a> and in the UK, costs can fall to <a href="http://www.goodfuneralguide.co.uk/direct-disposal/">around £1,000</a>. With
body disposal separated from ceremony in this way, some families hold a separate memorial service weeks or months later. </p>
<p>Yet, still, for many families the traditional cortege and associated hardware continue to signify respect for the deceased.</p>
<p>This increasingly complex market adds up to a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13576275.2016.1205574">big test</a> for the funeral industry as it evolves to accommodate those wanting a fully personal ceremony and those unable to afford escalating funeral prices. </p>
<p>In time, it could mean the death of the industry’s Victorian structure. If so, what new structure might rise from the ashes is anyone’s guess.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walter has received funding from the National Association of Funeral Directors and Civil Ceremonies Limited. </span></em></p>
A failure to innovate could mean the death of the traditional industry.
Tony Walter, Professor of Death Studies, University of Bath
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/62442
2016-07-27T07:56:04Z
2016-07-27T07:56:04Z
How tiny black spots shed light on part of the Homo naledi mystery
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130564/original/image-20160714-23342-1btij8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A replica of a Homo naledi skull.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many questions have been thrown up by the discovery in South Africa of a previously unidentified human relative, Homo naledi. Perhaps the one that’s grabbed people’s attention the most is how Homo naledi’s bones ended up in the Dinaledi Chamber in the Rising Star cave complex in the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg.</p>
<p>The team which found and classified the remains has <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150915-humans-death-burial-anthropology-Homo-naledi/">suggested</a> that the Homo naledi group deliberately deposited carcasses in complete darkness at the very back of the cave system. According to this claim, Homo naledi adopted a relatively “modern” or ritualistic form of behaviour even though the species had smaller brains than today’s humans.</p>
<p>To date, no opening has been found within the Dinaledi Chamber apart from the existing entrance. But might there have been an additional entrance at some time in the past? New research I have conducted and <a href="http://sajs.co.za/possibility-lichen-growth-bones-homo-naledi-were-they-exposed-light/j-francis-thackeray">published in the South African Journal of Science</a> centred on mysterious black spots found on Homo naledi bones from the cave. My findings suggest that the answer to this question may have been “yes” – there very well may have been an entrance.</p>
<p>I strongly believe that there was possibly a temporary entrance into the chamber, in addition to the one used by explorers today. This temporary entrance may been covered up by a rock fall that also trapped the individuals whose bones were found some time later. </p>
<p>Why do I believe that in fact there was this additional opening to the cave? Because those mysterious black spots are manganese dioxide and were probably deposited on the bones by lichen. And lichen need light to grow – so there must have been some light penetrating into the Dinaledi chamber. My scenario is that the Homo naledi family group was trapped in the Dinaledi Chamber after a rockfall – but that there was still, for a time, enough light to penetrate the chamber. This allowed lichen to grow on many of the bones of Homo naledi. </p>
<p>Then, with subsequent rockfalls in a phreatic maze, the Dinaledi Chamber was sealed except for the difficult route whereby explorers can enter the cave at the present time. </p>
<h2>Evidence from elsewhere</h2>
<p>The team which discovered the remains <a href="https://elifesciences.org/content/4/e09561">noted</a> that “some bones and teeth are dotted with black iron-manganese oxy-hydroxide deposits and coatings”.</p>
<p>I examined the remains in question and found that the spots were analogous to the kind of associated with modern lichen which are “symbionts”, including fungi – that disperse in spots – and algae, which require at least some light to grow.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I have previously <a href="http://reference.sabinet.co.za/webx/access/electronic_journals/sajsci/sajsci_v101_n1_a4.pdf">examined</a> instances of lichen in the Cradle of Humankind area. Lichen can grow on certain substrates, including bone or rock, with a dotted or spotted distribution. The spotted distribution of lichen is sometimes associated with dotted distributions of manganese oxy-hydroxide on the same surfaces. </p>
<p>The source of the manganese in the Cradle of Humankind region would include dolomite and <a href="http://geology.com/rocks/chert.shtml">chert</a>. These are rock materials that date back two billion years ago, related to a shallow saline sea that existed at that time.</p>
<p>In the Cradle of Humankind lichen has proved to grow not only on chert, but also on dolomite. It can also grow on bone surfaces.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130933/original/image-20160718-2115-fb2pyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The black markings on these Homo naledi bones are manganese dioxide.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hominid cranial specimens from the nearby Sterkfontein caves have small dots or spots of manganese oxyhydroxide on surfaces of bone, even within the inner cranial wall of these skulls. It seems likely that these dots or spots of manganese oxyhydroxide may have been areas where lichens were able to grow – in a partially sunlit micro-environment – for a relatively short period of time. Then sand would have covered the crania, blocking out the light and halting the lichen’s ability to keep growing. </p>
<p>So what does such evidence in the Cradle of Humankind tell us about Homo naledi’s mysterious black spots?</p>
<h2>Secrets of the caves</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130570/original/image-20160714-23336-2vu1nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sterkfontein Caves in the Cradle of Humankind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MaropengSA/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The circumstances in the Wonder Cave – which is within 10kms of the Rising Star cave complex – offer some important clues to what might have happened to create spots on the Homo naledi remains.</p>
<p>When one walks from the entrance of the cavern into the darkness of the dolomitic solution cavity, the following becomes obvious: </p>
<p>Where there is intense light and heat on dry exposed surfaces outside the cave, there is little or no lichen growth at all. But, in the moister and slightly darker regions of the cave, there is an area where light and moisture appear to be optimal for the present lichen colonists.</p>
<p>Then, in the darkness at the back of the cave where very little light penetrates, there’s a decrease in the mean size of lichens, until there is no lichen growth at all – although there may be some moisture because of water dripping through the phreatic maze of the dolomitic cave system.</p>
<p>All of this suggests that, for the Homo naledi bones in the Rising Star cave to have become spotted with manganese dioxide, they had to have some exposure to light. That could only have happened if light got into the cave. And this was only possible if there was some sort of entrance that has, in the distant past, been covered over. If correct, this would contradict the original team’s proposal that, in prehistory, the Dinaledi Chamber could only be accessed by means of very narrow and circuitous passages, in complete darkness.</p>
<h2>Time to reassess?</h2>
<p>Based on my findings I believe that there was, at some time, a second entrance to the Dinaledi Chamber. This allowed at least some light to penetrate into the cave and to facilitate the growth of lichen and the subsequent deposition of manganese oxyhydroxide on the Homo naledi bones. </p>
<p>I’d further hypothesise that such an entrance, if it existed at all, was temporary. A rockfall in the maze cave system may have subsequently sealed the entrance at some stage in the dolomitic solution cavity. The darkness that settled over the cave would have terminated any lichen growth.</p>
<p>If there was more than one entrance into the Dinaledi Chamber, as suggested by my work and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248416000282">research</a> conducted by Dr Aurore Val, the “intentional depositional model” will need to be reassessed. It would seem unlikely that the Homo naledi group deliberately deposited or buried its dead.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: I would like to acknowledge the support of the National Research Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the Centre of Excellence for the Palaeosciences.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Thackeray receives funding from the Mellon Foundation and the National Research Foundation</span></em></p>
New evidence suggests that Homo naledi didn’t deliberately deposit their dead in a hidden chamber.
Francis Thackeray, Phillip Tobias Chair in Palaeoanthropology, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand
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