Supplemental images accompanying the Final Disposition presentation

1. Final Disposition
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2. Burial
The act of placing a body in the earth
for the purpose of final disposition

3. Stonehenge – Salisbury, UK
“The site was used as a cemetery for 500 years, from the point of its inception…”
Archeologists date the first cremation burials here around 3,000 BC, about 500 years after the
placement of the monolithic Sarsen stones. The site’s original use is still debated, and some
claim it’s a combination memorial, burial ground, and healing or pilgrimage site. SOURCE
LINK

4. Saharan Desert Cemetery
Burial in arid regions with stony soil is done in shallow graves with earth, sand
and stone mounded on top. This cemetery just out side of Merzouga,
Morocco in the Saharan desert is contemporary somewhat, and yet the
practice of desert earth burial dates back thousands of years. SOURCE LINK

5. Slab-lined Cist Grave - Ireland
The Beaker People – 2800-1800 BC – are believed to have introduced the practice of
burying people in graves in the British Isles. Burials were commonly accompanied by
‘grave goods’ that represent social status, skilled trades, or are spiritual tokens. The
grave shown here is a “Cist” style, lined with stone slabs. SOURCE LINK

6. Merry Cemetery - Sapanta, Romania
The unique and colorful grave markers in this UNESCO-maintained cemetery
are highly adorned with cut-tin decorations, painted inscriptions and images
about the life lived. Notice the raised bed gardens atop each grave space.
SOURCE LINK

7. Prostejov Municipal Cemetery, Czech Republic
This modern European cemetery – paved, planted and trimmed into a park-
like atmosphere - reflects the modern management techniques popular with
many cities today, who subsidize the cost with general city funds because of
the pleasurable greenspace provided by cemeteries. IMAGE SOURCE LINK

8. Jewish Quarter Cemetery – Prague, Czech Republic
Jewish custom prohibited the moving or disturbance of graves. This
Jewish cemetery has over 12,000 gravestones in a very small area, with
an estimated 100,000 interments over 12 layers deep. SOURCE LINK

9. Great Lavra Ossuary: Mt. Athos, Greece
When cemeteries grew full – or religious custom demanded – the bones of
skeletonized corpses were dug up, often ritually washed, and placed in special
places or buildings for their permanent storage, called “ossuaries” or “charnel
houses” SOURCE LINK

10. Sedlec Ossuary – Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
The Sedlec Ossuary, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints is a “Church of
Bones”, decorated with 40,000 -70,000 human skeletons. After removing them from
the cemetery graves, several hundred years of bones were in disordered piles and a
woodcarver was hired to arrange them artfully as they are seen today. SOURCE LINK

11. Fort Bayard National Cemetery –
Silver City, New Mexico
In the USA, National cemeteries were established for the purpose of burying military
veterans. The gravemarkers are uniform, and the cemeteries are laid out identically,
according to the burial regulations of the burial period. US National Cemeteries do
have sustainability guidelines, but they are currently unenforced. SOURCE LINK

12. Arlington National Cemetery –Arlington, Virginia, USA
The 624 acres at Arlington contain more than 400,000 interments. About
7,000 burials a year take place here. Arlington is run by the US Dept. of the
Army; all other national cemeteries are run by the National Park Service or the
Dept. of Veterans Affairs. SOURCE LINK

13. Cemetery Wildflower Meadow – Carlisle, UK
In the UK, over 6,000 churchyard cemeteries welcome both history and nature
under the auspices of the Living Churchyard Program, along with an active natural
burial movement there. Grave areas are re-seeded with wildflowers and mowed
1-2x a year, providing habitat for birds, squirrels, and pollinators. SOURCE LINK

14. Tree burial in Brighton-Hove, UK
Municipal cemeteries, strapped for space and funds, are now going beyond
the conventional burial practices, interring bodies directly into the earth with a
tree planted on top of the grave. This is in an existing city-cemetery’s
expansion, and this tree-burial section is now full. SOURCE LINK

15. Entombment
The act of placing human remains
into a tomb or chamber for final
disposition

16. Egyptian Pyramids at Giza – Cairo, Egypt
The earliest known Egyptian pyramids were constructed around 2600 BCE and
are the largest burial chambers known. Prior to the pyramid, prominent
Egyptians were buried in “mastabas”, and the stepped-structure of both is said
to assist ascension into their Heaven. SOURCE LINK

17. Early Egyptian burial, pre-3000 BCE
For those who couldn’t buy tombs, shallow graves held bodies wrapped
in linen, surrounded by pots, food, & jewelry. Dessication, rather than
decomposition, occurs in the dry soil, leaving more grave artifacts and
human remains than are found in temperate zones . SOURCE LINK

18. Theban style tomb – Deir el Medina, Egypt
Individual pyramid tombs were likely made by craftsmen who worked on
the pyramids for themselves and wealthier members of a community.
The tombs sit atop actual graves and may contain painted images and
inscriptions on the inner walls. SOURCE LINK

19. The Plain of Jars in Laos, Cambodia – 500 BCE-500CE
This burial ground dates to the Iron Age. The “jars” are cut from rock, primarily
sandstone. Remains have been found within the jars, and in the ground
around the jars, leading archeologists to suggest the jar was for principal
family or caste members , with secondary burials outside. SOURCE LINK

20. Marakesh Cemetery – Merzouga, Morocco
Traditional burials in arid regions were also encased slightly above ground, sealed so
they could not be disturbed. One custom holds that tombs aren’t marked with a
name until the last person in the family has died, and that burial represents the end of
the family line. SOURCE LINK

21. The cliff-side tombs of Myra, Turkey
Rock-cut tombs carved into sheer limestone cliffs deter grave robbers, a
problem in cultures where graves contain valuable items that confer
status in the present day and utility in the afterlife. SOURCE LINK

22. Wedge Tomb – Ireland; 2500-2000 BCE
This late Neolithic-Middle Bronze Age tomb-style has roof and walls of slab
stone, tapered at one end with the wider opening toward the East. The burial
takes place within the enclosure and is then covered with a pile of loose
stones, called a “cairn”. SOURCE LINK

23. English Tombs of Royalty – 1100-1500 ACE
The carved and painted tomb of Eleanor of Aquitaine lies between her son Richard I
and her second husband, Henry II, both kings of England. Graves of royalty and
prominent people were often beneath the churches, with the common people buried
outside in the “churchyard”, as close as they could afford to be. SOURCE LINK

24. Modern tombs, now called “Private Estates”
The tomb of William Randolph Hearst, prominent American industrialist,
exemplifies the status-conferring role of a large permanent building in a
cemetery. This tomb serves as a family mausoleum in Colma, California. In
modern cemeteries private tombs are sold as “private estates.” SOURCE LINK

25. The Terra Cotta Warriors – Xian, China
One of the most elaborate examples of funerary art accompanying burial of a
notable person is the life-size 8,000 soldier army made out of clay and buried
with emperor Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of china, in 210-209 BCE.
SOURCE LINK

26. Signs of status – Zhou Dynasty, Luoyang, China
As part of this tomb, the main pit of the unlined earthen burial site nearby
contained 5 chariots and 12 horses, thought to have been interred as part of
the entourage of a mid-level official of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE)
(SOURCE LINK)

27. Takamatsu Zuka Kofun – 700-800 ACE, Japan
This burial mound, now covered with bamboo, houses an internal chamber whose
walls are painted with astronomical images. The person(s) it was built for is unknown,
suggesting that not all elaborate tombs were strictly about commemorating a
particular individual. SOURCE LINK

28. Mausoleum – Voghera, Italy
A mausoleum is a free-standing building comprised of stone or cement burial crypts
for entombment aboveground. It provides one oslution to the lack-of-space problem
in cemeteries. The crypts may face either inside or out. In this picture, the
mausoleum is to the right and private tombs are on the left. SOURCE LINK

29. Cremation
Final disposition of the body through
incineration

30. Crematorium circa 1870 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Cremation takes place in a cremator, a large oven-like device designed to burn
a body completely, reaching temperatures that consume all but the bone and
metals with the body. This crematorium operated until 1895. SOURCE LINK

31. Pashupatinath Cremation
Prior to performing the procedure in a building, the first cremations were
“open-air” cremations, like this one in Pashupatinath, India, where the body is
placed on a pyre of wood and burned until nothing but bones remains. Open-
air cremation is still the norm in India. SOURCE LINK

32. “Viking Funeral” of Russian Noble by Siemiradzki
In this image mourners, family, friends and comrades are preparing for the
ritual burning of the noble, seated in the boat among goods and offerings. The
boat will be taken out to sea and put to the torch. SOURCE LINK

33. Crestone, Colorado – Open Air Cremation
In the US and the UK, funeral rights advocates are successfully winning
changes in regulation to permit open-air cremation. Promoters say it’s a
respectful and safe alternative that should be permitted if families want it.
SOURCE LINK

34. Exposure Burials
A burial that leaves the body
unburied, exposed to the elements of
sun, rain, air and scavenger animials

35. Native American Tree “Burial”
Many Native American tribes practiced “tree burial”, with the corpse wrapped
tightly in hides, fiber and cloth to delay the body’s exposure to the elements,
scavenging birds and other predators as long as possible. SOURCE LINK

36. Native American – Crow Indian Platform Burial
On the North American plains in areas where there were few trees, raised
platforms were constructed to elevate the body above ground level and delay
disturbance by scavengers.
SOURCE LINK

37. Dakhma/Tower of Silence – Ritual Exposure
This Zorastrian practice involves laying the body - considered “unclean” and
polluting of earth and fire – on a circular stone-and-brick tower for
excarnation by scavengers and exposure to the sun and elements. Exposure
was considered the individual’s final act of charity. SOURCE LINK

38. Excarnation
The act of removing flesh from the
bones of a corpse (de-fleshing)

39. Tibetan “Sky Burial”
In the traditional Tibetan “Sky Burial” dating back over 2,000 years, Tibetan priests
ritually offer the corpse to vultures., called “holy eagles” This practice expresses the
Buddhist perspective that any personality connected with the body ends at death, the
body is now food, and the soul of the person has moved on. SOURCE LINK

40. The cycle of life is complete
In a Tibetan Sky Burial, the corpse may or may not be ritually dismembered
beforehand by a priest. This image is graphic but it shows clearly how
thoroughly the body is reduced to bone, with the process taking a matter of
hours to finish. SOURCE LINK

41. The End
“I'm not afraid of death; I just don't
want to be there when it happens.”
― Woody Allen