Editing Burial (section)

==Locations==

===Where to bury===
Apart from sanitary and other practical considerations, the site of burial can be determined by religious and socio-cultural considerations.

Thus in some traditions, especially with an animistic logic, the remains of the dead are "banished" for fear their spirits would harm the living if too close; others keep remains close to help surviving generations.

Religious rules may prescribe a specific zone, e.g. some Christian traditions hold that Christians must be buried in [[consecration|consecrated ground]], usually a cemetery;<ref>Crow, Madison; Zori, Colleen; Zori, Davide (17 December 2020). "Doctrinal and Physical Marginality in Christian Death: The Burial of Unbaptized Infants in Medieval Italy". Religions. 11 (12): 2. [https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/12/678/htm#B51-religions-11-00678 doi:10.3390/rel11120678].</ref> an earlier practice, burial in or very near the church (hence the word churchyard), was generally abandoned with individual exceptions as a high posthumous honour; also many existing funeral monuments and crypts remain in use.

Royalty and high nobility often have one or more "traditional" sites of burial, generally monumental, often in a palatial chapel or cathedral.

In North America, private family cemeteries were common among wealthy landowners during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many prominent people were buried in private cemeteries on their respective properties, sometimes in lead-lined coffins. Many of these family cemeteries were not documented and were therefore lost to time and abandoned; their grave markers having long since been pilfered by vandals or covered by forest growth. Their locations are occasionally discovered during construction projects.

After [[interfaith marriage]], issues might arise regarding burial. As different religious traditions prescribe different locations for burial, a single burial location for a married couple is not always self-evident.<ref>{{Citation |title=Ten Mixed Families in a Divided World |date=2024-12-31 |work=Love Across Difference |pages=232–251 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781503640764-011/html |access-date=2025-03-26 |publisher=Stanford University Press |doi=10.1515/9781503640764-011 |isbn=978-1-5036-4076-4}}</ref>

===Marking the location of the burial===
[[Image:Japanese Cemetery - Broome.JPG|thumb|[[Kanji]] inscriptions engraved on headstones in the Japanese Cemetery in [[Broome, Western Australia]]]]
Most modern cultures mark the location of the body with a [[headstone]]. This serves two purposes. First, the [[grave (burial)|grave]] will not accidentally be '''exhumed'''. Second, headstones often contain information or tributes to deceased. This is a form of remembrance for loved ones; it can also be viewed as a form of [[immortality]], especially in cases of famous people's graves. Such [[monumental inscription]]s may subsequently be useful to genealogists and family historians.

In many cultures graves will be grouped, so the monuments make up a [[necropolis]], a "city of the dead" paralleling the community of the living.

====Unmarked grave====
In many cultures graves are [[#Marking the location of the burial|marked]] with durable markers, or [[monuments]], intended to help remind people of the buried person. An [[unmarked grave]] is a [[Grave (burial)|grave]] with no such memorial marker.

====Anonymous burial====
Another sort of unmarked grave is a burial site with an anonymous marker, such as a simple [[cross]]; boots, rifle and helmet; a sword and shield; a cairn of stones; or even a monument. This may occur when identification of the deceased is impossible. Although many unidentified deceased are buried in [[potter's field]]s, some are memorialized, especially in smaller communities or in the case of deaths publicized by local media. Anonymous burials also happen in poorer or disadvantaged populations' communities in countries such as South Africa, where in the past the non-white population was simply too poor to afford headstones. At the cemetery in the small rural town of [[Harding, KwaZulu-Natal]], many grave sites have no identification and just have a border of stones which mark out the dimensions of the grave site itself.

Many countries have [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier|buried an unidentified soldier]] (or other member of the military) in a prominent location as a form of respect for all unidentified war dead. The UK memorializes '[[the Unknown Warrior]]' in [[Westminster Abbey]]; [[France]]'s is [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (France)|buried underneath]] the [[Arc de Triomphe]]; [[Italy]]'s is buried [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Italy)|within the Monumento al Milite Ignoto]] in [[Rome]]; [[Canada]]'s [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Canada)|is buried]] at the [[National War Memorial (Canada)|National War Memorial]] in Ottawa; [[Australia]]'s is located at the [[Australian War Memorial]] in [[Canberra]]; [[New Zealand]]'s [[Tomb of the Unknown Warrior (New Zealand)|is located]] in [[Wellington]]; [[Russia]]'s [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Moscow)|memorial]] is in [[Alexander Garden]] in [[Moscow]], and the U.S.'s [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)|is located]] at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].

Many cultures practice anonymous burial as a norm, not an exception. For instance, in 2002 a survey for the Federal Guild of German Stonemasons found that, depending on the location within Germany, from 0% to 43% of burials were anonymous.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stonereport.com/ihtm/detail-e.htm?aclnews=10:0:294:::0:242: |title=Stonereport News for your natural stone business |publisher=Stonereport.com |access-date=25 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716145341/http://www.stonereport.com/ihtm/detail-e.htm?aclnews=10%3A0%3A294%3A%3A%3A0%3A242%3A |archive-date=16 July 2011  }}</ref> According to ''[[Christian Century]]'' magazine, the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church is that anonymous burials reflect a dwindling belief in God.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-18311722/europeans-seek-the-grave-s-anonymity|title="Europeans Seek the Grave's Anonymity" – The Christian Century, Vol. 113, Issue 17, May 15, 1996|website=|access-date=|archive-date=10 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610090107/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-18311722/europeans-seek-the-grave-s-anonymity|url-status=dead}}</ref> Others claim that this trend is mainly driven by secularism and the high costs of traditional burials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dw.com/en/germans-opt-for-alternative-burials-for-individual-touch/a-17188952|title=Germans opt for alternative burials for individual touch {{!}} Culture {{!}} DW.COM {{!}} 31 October 2013|last=(www.dw.com)|first=Deutsche Welle|website=DW.COM|access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref>

====Secret burial====
In rare cases, a known person may be buried without identification, perhaps to avoid [[desecration]] of the corpse, [[grave robbing]], or vandalism of the burial site. This may be particularly the case with infamous or notorious figures. In other cases, it may be to prevent the grave from becoming a [[tourist]] attraction or a destination of [[pilgrimage]]. Survivors may cause the deceased to be buried in a secret location or other unpublished place, or in a grave with a false name (or no name at all) on the marker.

Following [[Walt Disney]]'s cremation, his ashes were buried in a secret location in [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)|Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery]], California. Some burial sites at Forest Lawn, such as those of [[Humphrey Bogart]], [[Mary Pickford]] and [[Michael Jackson]], are secluded in private gated gardens or mausoleums with no public access. A number of tombs are also kept from the public eye. Forest Lawn's Court of Honor indicates that some of its crypts have plots which are reserved for individuals who may be "voted in" as "Immortals"; no amount of money can purchase a place. Photographs taken at Forest Lawn are not permitted to be published, and their information office usually refuses to reveal exactly where the remains of famous people are buried.

====Multiple bodies per grave====
Some couples or groups of people (such as a [[married couple]] or other family members) may wish to be buried in the same plot. In some cases, the coffins (or urns) may simply be buried side by side. In others, one casket may be interred above another. If this is planned for in advance, the first casket may be buried more deeply than is the usual practice so that the second casket may be placed over it without disturbing the first. In many states in Australia all graves are designated two or three depth (depending on the water table) for multiple burials, at the discretion of the burial rights holder, with each new interment atop the previous coffin separated by a thin layer of earth. As such all graves are dug to greater depth for the initial burial than the traditional six feet to facilitate this practice.

[[Mass burial]] is the practice of burying multiple bodies in one location. Civilizations attempting [[genocide]] often employ mass burial for victims. However, mass burial may in many cases be the only practical means of dealing with an overwhelming number of human remains, such as those resulting from a [[natural disaster]], an act of [[terrorism]], an [[epidemic]], or an [[accident]]. This practice has become less common in the developed world with the advent of [[genetic testing]], but even in the 21st century remains which are unidentifiable by current methods may be buried in a mass grave.

Individuals who are buried at the expense of the local authorities and buried in [[potter's field]]s may be buried in mass graves. [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] was once believed to have been buried in such a manner, but today it is known that such burials were never allowed in Mozart's Vienna, whose magistrates refused to agree to the burial regulations decreed by [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]].<ref name=Brauneis>[http://www.aproposmozart.com/Brauneis%20--%20Dies%20irae.rev.Index.pdf "Dies irae, dies illa – Day of wrath, day of wailing: Notes on the commissioning, origin and completion of Mozart's Requiem (KV 626)"] by {{ill|Walther Brauneis|de}} {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407071543/http://www.aproposmozart.com/Brauneis%20--%20Dies%20irae.rev.Index.pdf |date=2014-04-07 }}</ref> In some cases, the remains of unidentified individuals have been buried in mass graves in potter's fields, making exhumation and future identification troublesome for law enforcement.

Naval ships sunk in combat are also considered mass graves by many countries. For example, [[U.S. Navy]] policy declares such wrecks a mass grave (such as the [[USS Arizona Memorial]]) and forbids the recovery of remains. In lieu of recovery, divers or submersibles may leave a plaque dedicated to the memory of the ship or boat and its crew, and family members are invited to attend the ceremony.

Sites of large former battlefields may also contain one or more mass graves. [[Douaumont ossuary]] is one such mass grave, and it contains the remains of 130,000 soldiers from both sides of the [[Battle of Verdun]].

[[Catacombs]] also constitute a form of mass grave. Some catacombs, for example [[Catacombs of Rome|those in Rome]], were designated as a communal burial place. Some, such as the [[catacombs of Paris]], only became a mass grave when individual burials were relocated from cemeteries marked for demolition.

Judaism does not generally allow multiple bodies in a grave. An exception to this is a grave in the military cemetery in Jerusalem, where there is a ''kever achim'' ([[Hebrew]]: "grave of brothers") where two soldiers were killed together in a tank and are buried in one grave. As the bodies were so fused together with the metal of the tank that they could not be separately identified, they were buried in one grave (along with parts of the tank).

===Live burial===
{{Main|Premature burial}}

Sometimes people are buried alive. Having no way of escaping interment, they die in place, typically by [[asphyxia]]tion, [[dehydration]], [[starvation]], or [[hypothermia|exposure]] to climate. People may come to be buried alive in a number of different ways;
* ''Intentional'': buried alive as a method of [[Execution (legal)|execution]] or [[murder]], called ''[[immurement]]'' when the person is entombed within walls. In [[ancient Rome]], [[Vestal Virgin]]s who broke their vows were punished in this way.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PeYRAAAAYAAJ|title=A School Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: Abridged from the Larger Dictionary|last=Smith|first=William|date=1 January 1846|publisher=Harper|language=en|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PeYRAAAAYAAJ/page/n358 353]}}</ref>
* ''Accidental'': A person or group of people in a cave, mine, or other underground area may be sealed underground by an [[earthquake]], [[cave in]], [[avalanche]] or other [[natural disaster]] or accident.
* ''Inadvertent'': People have been buried alive because they were mistakenly pronounced dead by a [[coroner]] or other official.

[[Edgar Allan Poe]] wrote a number of stories and poems about premature burial, including a story called "The Premature Burial". These works inspired a widespread popular fear of this appalling but unlikely event. Various expedients have been devised to prevent it, including burying telephones or sensors in graves.

===Burial at cross-roads===
Historically, '''burial at [[Crossroads (culture)|cross-roads]]''' was the method of disposing of [[Capital punishment|executed]] [[criminals]] and [[suicide]]s.<ref name=EB1911/> In Great Britain this tradition was altered by the [[Burial of Suicide Act 1823]], which abolished the legal requirements of burying suicides and other people at crossroads. [[Junction (road)|Cross-roads]] form a crude cross shape and this may have given rise to the belief that these spots were selected as the next best burying-places to consecrated ground. Another possible explanation is that the ancient [[Teutons|Teutonic]] (Germanic) ethnic groups often built their altars at the cross-roads, and since human sacrifices, especially of criminals, formed part of the ritual, these spots came to be regarded as execution grounds. Hence after the introduction of [[Christianity]], criminals and suicides were buried at the cross-roads during the night, to assimilate as far as possible their funeral to that of the [[paganism|pagans]]. An example of a cross-road execution-ground was the famous [[Tyburn]] in [[London]], which stood on the spot where the [[Roman road]] to [[Edgware]] and beyond met the Roman road heading west out of London.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Cross-roads, Burial at |volume=7 |page=510}}</ref>

Superstition also played a part in the selection of crossroads in the burial of suicides. Folk belief often held such individuals could rise as some form of [[undead]] (such as a [[vampire]]) and burying them at crossroads would inhibit their ability to find and wreak havoc on their living relations and former associates.