Yes, sometimes when I'm in bed in that realm skirting the edge of sleep an awake I can have some odd thoughts. This morning or sometime in the night I started thinking about exhumation. For those of you not familiar with the term that is digging up a buried person. You'll typically see it in some crime show where they get a court order to dig up a person that was buried. It usually occurs in those shows because they come to believe they missed some important evidence such as a poisoning.
Okay, that is all pretty standard fare. Let's now begin my trip into the weird.
I started thinking about Archaeology. I am often watching shows where they are excavating ruins, digging up old burials, and entering forgotten tombs. The corpses are rarely (if ever) left where they were found. They can end up in any number of places. There are occasions where they are put back where they were found, but it seems often to not be the case at all. I witnessed an exhumation growing up near the town I spent most of my youth at, and that was of exhumation of victims of a somewhat famous 1800s cannibal Alferd/Alfred Packer. I lived a couple of miles from the site of that. A bunch of archaeologists exhumed the bodies to try to confirm the stories that came out in the trial. When they were done they put them back with a nice fancy new marker. That doesn't seem to be the norm.
So what I found interesting is this idea that so many people decide to be buried and they buy lavish coffins, etc. At what point in the distant future will those people's graves become fair game for archaeologists? If you think your body has something of value you would like to share with the future then perhaps this is a good reason for such a burial. You become like a time capsule for some future civilization.
"That is horrible, they would disturb a grave?" - Uhm, yeah I watch them doing it frequently. If it is old enough then digging up graves seems to be a popular past time for trying to recover lost information, and sometimes to correct information that was likely intentionally altered.
"I don't want them messing with my grave!!" - Neither did the Pharaoh's and most people that went for burial. That didn't stop it from happening. Some people even went to pretty elaborate schemes to try to prevent it. That doesn't typically work either.
This made me think about burial. I've told my wife before if I had my preferences for what is done with me when I pass away someone would take me unembalmed out into the forest somewhere and drop me there for animals to feast upon. Returning to nature as it were. Though I'm also fine with my remains being used for science too, as long as some jerk doesn't turn me into a zombie or something. :)
Many people may find this squeemish, but other things seem artificial to me. I could consider cremation but even that is stupidly expensive. I also like the idea of that which I am no longer using being of use to someone or something (animals, insects, worms) else.
I supposed being buried in a peat bog to later be exhumed by archaeologists would be a worthy disposal method as well if I thought my bones would actually offer anything new for the future to study that is not already neatly resting in millions of caskets six feet under the ground all over the place.
Yes, this topic is a bit morbid, and definitely weird. I often dwell in both of those places. Morbid, and weird. Though I spend far less time in morbid than I did when I was younger.
So there you have it... another bizarre train of thought. Hopefully some of you enjoyed it, and hopefully the rest of you were not too disturbed by it.
Thank you for the great upvot on my recent introduction post @dwinblood!
I'm here to return the favor.
To my great surprize, you got some interesting posts. I will have to stay a while and snoop around here! ;)
I try. I'm pretty eclectic. I bounce around from topic to topic and write about whatever my mind happens to be nagging at me to write about at the time. From reading your post I got the impression you might be familiar with that particular driving force.
Before finishing reading you comment, I was practically thinking the next sentence before reading it ;)
And hey, thanks for actually reading my crazy post!
I don't even find it morbid or weird! It is quite valid to think about our remains. I couldn't really care what happens to mine. If it is useful to science, or if anyone needs my organs, go for it. My favourite option is cremation.
My friend has an interesting take on the subject. She insists on cremation and her ashes be scattered, so that there will be no "spot" for her family and (friend!) to sit and chat to her, thus disturbing her in the hereafter!!!
This actually made me smile. I think we only briefly glanced this topic. For the most part I agree. When I am done with my body I do not care what happens to it. I'm done. I care much more about the process to getting to death than the after death part. I would rather not be embalmed as I know it is poisonous to the ground.
At the same time, I have thought about various obscure scenarios that would make it so all of these bodies are considered for archaeology. What would the turning point be so that we become like to Romans to future civilizations. Yes, people are trying to prevent that, but it was not like the Romans thought they would fall either.
We can even go further back to Egypt, like you said, and they took steps to prevent grave robbers. That alone has spurred many to try to find the tombs. There is the treasure part too ;) For my part, I cannot be uptight about what is done with my body if I encourage/promote archaeology of the past. What makes my body better than those tossed in mass graves? I would like not to meet that fate, but I do not think my body deserves more respect than theirs. Good topic! ^_^
Thanks. Glad to see you active too, but you've been busy. :)
Have had the same desire for an open-air burial myself, for the strange reason that I claustrophobic and don't want to be trapped in a coffin. Thought of cremation, being roasted, isn't so pleasant either. However, did you know that followers of the Parsi religion in India have towers where they leave the dead for birds to feed on? Also, of course, the Native Americans of some tribes (I don't know which) would put their dead up in trees and also allow the birds and wild animals to eat them. It is a way of returning the body to nature. Rohinton Mistry comically portrayed the problems of Parsi body-disposal to the surrounding community in a scene in one of his books. Sorry, again, don't remember which, but it was funny in a morbid way.
I think the Norse burning ship plan sounds good.
Interesting! I have never gone down this train of thought before, you make a great point that given enough time future archaeologists will be looking at the bones of today. Very good thank you!
too uncanny for me. I am a softie ^^*
Never thought about it like that, although I did witness the exhumation of my granfather (it's standard practice here, to make room for another dead in the family). Nice skull, that's all I remember about it.
I really don't understand the people that waste a lot of money on funeral monuments (also common practice here). Who cares you have precious marble on your tombstone, nobody will even remember you in 100 years!
I have always thought that about all the sacred burials sites, how many years before they are no longer sacred and the same goes for any regular graveyard. These are all places where once there was great sorrow at the loss of loved ones and this should be respected for eternity in my opinion.