cemetery

A place for burying the dead; a graveyard.

[Middle English cimiterie, from Old French cimitiere, from Medieval Latin cimitērium, from Late Latin coemētērium, from Greek koimētērion, from koimān, to put to sleep.]

The cemetery is known in Hebrew as bet kevarot ("place of graves"); bet olam ("house of eternity"); and euphemistically as bet ḥayyim ("place of the living"). Usually, the land of the cemetery is considered to be holy, and a special Consecration ceremony is held on its inauguration. It is reserved for Jews. The cemetery requires decorum akin to that for a synagogue. On the other hand, the cemetery is a source of ritual impurity (tum'ah). Those of priestly descent (kohanim) are not allowed to enter a cemetery, except to attend the burial of near relatives whom they are obligated to mourn. Ritual purification is needed by those who have entered a cemetery; today, the custom is to wash one's hands on leaving a cemetery as a symbol of purification. Thus, the cemetery has the paradoxical status of containing both elements of consecration and of ritual impurity.

The responsibility for establishing a Jewish cemetery devolves on the Community, and is one of the first matters to be arranged when a new community is being formed. The Jewish cemetery has generally been purchased and maintained with communal funds, and has been managed by a committee appointed by the community. In recent times, cemeteries have been acquired by communities, synagogues, and burial societies. Private Jewish cemeteries have also come into existence, selling graves to the general Jewish public who do not have burial plots in the non-profit cemeteries.

An ancient custom was to leave cemeteries unadorned by trees and plants. This practice is maintained by the old cemeteries of the communities in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, and Hebron. However, beautifying cemeteries with trees and plants is now a widespread practice among Jews.

Traditionally, a building was erected at the cemetery to serve as a chapel (ohel) and sometimes also as a place to prepare the body for burial (see Tohorah). A wall or fence surrounds a cemetery.

The graves are arranged in rows. Jewish law requires a distance of six handbreadths between graves. Under certain circumstances, the distance may be reduced to a minimum of six fingerbreadths. If necessary, one body may be buried on top of another, if there is a separating layer of earth the depth of six handbreadths.

Some cemeteries have separate rows for men and for women, and some have separate sections different communities (e.g., Ashkenazim and Sephardim). Some bury in chronological order according to date of death; others have family plots; some combine the two practices. Traditionally, certain rows were reserved for rabbis and pious communal leaders. There was also a designated row for suicides (unless adjudged "of unsound mind"), apostates, and notorious transgressors, often near the cemetery wall. The Shulkḥan Arukh indicates that a wicked person should not be buried near a righteous person, nor even near a person who was not as wicked. Only a pious person should be buried near another pious person. Enemies should not be buried next to each other.

Graves are generally marked with Tombstones. A widespread Sephardi practice is for the stone to lie flat on the grave (though not in Italy and some other Western lands). The prevalent Ashkenazi practice in the Diaspora is to erect an upright headstone. R. Jehiel Michal Epstein in his Arukh ha-Shulkḥan (YD 364:6) ruled against the erection of expensive and elaborate tombstones. Simplicity is by far to be preferred. Instead of expending large sums on tombstones, the family can better serve the memory of the dead by contributing to charity in his memory.

One should not act in a lightheaded manner in a cemetery. It is inappropriate to eat, drink, read, or study there. Animals should not be allowed to graze in a cemetery, and it should not be used as a shortcut or as a place to take a stroll. It is considered mocking the dead to wear phylacteries (Tefillin) or carry a Scroll of the Law in the cemetery within four cubits of a grave. The Torah can only be fulfilled by the living, so that by performing Mitsvot in a cemetery it is as though the dead are reminded of their deprivation (Maimonides, Yad Evel 114:13; Sh. Ar. YD 367-8).

There are various customs with regard to visiting the gravesite. The most common times are: at the end of seven days of Mourning; 30 days after burial; annually on the anniversary of the death. On such visits, psalms and prayers for the dead are recited.

In many communities, it is customary to visit the cemetery during the month of Elul, prior to the New Year (Rosh Ha-Shanah). Some visit on the ninth of Av (Tishah Be-Av) and the eve of the Day of Atonement. However, the rabbis discouraged overfrequent visiting of cemeteries. A custom in many Sephardi communities has been to bury any worn-out sacred books and artifacts on Lag Ba-Omer. Pilgrimages to the cemetery were also common at times of communal distress; people prayed at the graves of the pious seeking God's mercy (Ta'an. 16a, 23b; Maimonides, Hilkhot Ta'anit 4:18).

Among North African Jews, a custom arose known as Hillula. This was an annual pilgrimage to the grave of a saintly person, whose spirit was believed to continue to exert influence on the affairs of the living. Prayers were offered, seeking the saint's intercession with God for the benefit of those who were praying. The hillula was often the occasion for a large gathering at the cemetery. Fires were lit, candles were placed on the grave, prayers were chanted. The event would last through the night, often having a festive quality.

In traditional custom, a person entering a cemetery after an interval of over 30 days recites a blessing acknowledging that God is the master of life and death, and that He will raise us to new life hereafter. It concludes: "Blessed are You, O Lord, who revives the dead."

1. Burial-ground, especially a large landscaped park or ground laid out expressly for the deposition or interment of the dead, not being a churchyard attached to a place of worship. The first Christian examples of cemeteries physically detached from churches were established by Protestants for two reasons: decency, because of the disgusting state of overcrowded churchyards in towns; and doctrine, because of the desire to weaken RC belief in Purgatory by sundering the living from the dead. Examples are those at Geneva (1536), Kassel (1526), Marburg (1530 and 1568), and Edinburgh (1562). During C18 several suburban walled cemeteries of limited extent were formed, in RC as well as Protestant countries, from sheer necessity (e.g. Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Dessau, Belfast, all in the 1780s and 1790s). However, Europeans had been burying in cemeteries in India in C17, and erecting monuments over their graves (e.g. Surat), and in Calcutta the South Park Street Cemetery was established in 1767, a true necropolis, with streets of fine Classical mausolea and monuments far more magnificent than anything in Europe at that time. Attempts to bring major reforms to European cities were sporadic, generally unsatisfactory, and aesthetically dreadful until, by a complex process prompted by a new sensibility forged through poetry and literature, the English landscape-garden fused with the necessity of burying the dead in decent and hygienic ways, and, as a result of the Decree of 23 Prairial, Year XII (12 June 1804), cemeteries were to be established in France outside urban limits. Brongniart was entrusted with the design of a great cemetery at Mont-Louis, east of the city of Paris, which became Père-Lachaise; this was to become world-famous and enormously influential, for nothing short of a revolution had occurred. Liverpool's St James's Cemetery was created in a disused quarry (1825–9—by Foster); Glasgow's Necropolis (1831–2) followed, and, after Asiatic Cholera arrived in 1831, London's first great garden-cemeteries were established at Kensal Green (1833), Norwood (1837), Highgate (1839), Nunhead (1840), Brompton (1840), and Abney Park (1840), all of which were landscaped and embellished with architecture. No major town or city in Europe or the USA could function properly without a cemetery or cemeteries, and many of great quality were designed. Fine examples in the USA include Mount Auburn, Boston, MA (1831—a superbly landscaped cemetery by Bigelow and others), Laurel Hill, Philadelphia, PA (1839—by Notman, again a stunning layout with an arboretum), Hollywood, Richmond, VA (1848—also by Notman, who must be regarded as one of the founding-fathers of American landscape architecture), Green-Wood, Brooklyn, NYC (from 1838—a marvellously landscaped cemetery laid out by Douglass), and Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, NY (from 1844—the apotheosis of the large landscaped cemetery, also by Douglass). However, the proliferation of monuments inhibited the maintenance of the grounds, and Downing suggested that memorials should be designed in a way that would not hinder upkeep. One of the first of the so-called ‘Lawn Cemeteries’ was created (1855) at Cincinatti, OH, by Adolphus Strauch (1822–83).

In Italy cemeteries tended to be more of the campo santo type, but very much larger than the medieval Pisan prototype. Examples were the Certosa at Bologna (1801–15), Brescia (1814–49), Verona (1828) and the superlative Staglieno, Genoa (1844–51—with its Neo-Classical galleries and Rotunda by Barabino and Resasco). C20 cemeteries include the war cemeteries established after the 1914–18 war, with contributions from Lutyens, Baker, and others; the fine Woodlands Cemetery near Stockholm by Asplund and Lewerentz (1917–41); the Slovene National Cemetery, Žale (1937–40—by Plečnik, who unquestionably created a masterpiece); the San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena (1971–6 and 1980–90— by Rossi); the Brion Cemetery, San Vito d'Altivole, near Treviso, Italy (1970–2—by Scarpa); the Woodland Cemetery, Leutkirch (1977–82—by von Branca); and the Cemetery for the Unknown, Mirasaka Sousa, Hiroshima, Japan (2001–2—by Hideki Yoshimatsu and Archipro—a moving meditation on nature, loss, and death).

2. Catacombs.

3. Consecrated enclosure for burial of the dead.

Bibliography

• Architectural Review, ccxii/1270 (Dec. 2002), 42–5
• Ariès (1981)
• Berresford et al. (2004)
• Colvin (1991)
• J. Curl (2000a, 2002c)
• J. Curl (2000a, 2002c)
• J. Curl (ed.) (2001)
• Etlin (1984)
• Loudon (1981)
• Meeks (1966)
• Stannard (ed.) (1975)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

The term "cemetery" entered American usage in 1831 with the founding and design of the extramural, picturesque landscape of Mount Auburn Cemetery. A non-denominational rural cemetery, Mount Auburn was an urban institution four miles west of Boston under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1829).

With the exception of New Haven's New Burying Ground (1796, later renamed the Grove Street Cemetery), existing burial grounds, graveyards, or churchyards, whether urban or rural, public, sectarian, or private, had been unsightly, chaotic places, purely for disposal of the dead and inconducive to new ideals of commemoration. Most burials were in earthen graves, although the elite began to construct chamber tombs for the stacking of coffins in the eighteenth century. Most municipalities also maintained "receiving tombs" for the temporary storage of bodies that could not be immediately buried. New Orleans favored aboveground tomb structures due to the French influence and high water table.

Mount Auburn, separately incorporated in 1835, established the "rest-in-peace" principle with the first legal guarantee of perpetuity of burial property, although many notable families continued to move bodies around from older graves and tombs through the antebellum decades.

Mount Auburn immediately attracted national attention and emulation, striking a chord by epitomizing the era's "cult of the melancholy" that harmonized ideas of death and nature and served a new historical consciousness. Numerous civic leaders from other cities visited it as a major tourist attraction and returned home intent on founding such multifunctional institutions. Major examples include Baltimore's Green Mount (1838), Brooklyn's Green-Wood (1838), Pittsburgh's Allegheny (1844), Providence's Swan Point (1847), Louisville's Cave Hill (1848), Richmond's Hollywood (1848), St. Louis's Bellefontaine (1849), Charleston's Magnolia (1850), Chicago's Grace-land (1860), Hartford's Cedar Hill (1863), Buffalo's Forest Lawn (1864), Indianapolis's Crown Hill (1864), and Cleveland's Lake View (1869). Most began with over a hundred acres and later expanded.

Prussian landscape gardener Adolph Strauch's "landscape lawn plan" brought a type of zoning to Cincinnati's Spring Grove (1845), which from 1855 on, in the name of "scientific management" and the park-like aesthetics of the "beautiful," was acclaimed as the "American system." Cemetery design contributed to the rise of professional landscape architects and inspired the making of the nation's first public parks.

Modernization

Inspired by Strauch's reform, cemetery managers (or cemeterians) professionalized in 1887 through the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, later renamed the American Cemetery Association and then the International Cemetery and Funeral Association. The monthly Modern Cemetery (1890), renamed Parkand Cemetery and Landscape Gardening in 1895, detailed the latest regulatory and technical developments, encouraged standardized taste and practices, and supplemented inter-changes at annual conventions with emphasis on cemeteries as efficiently run businesses. Modernization led to mass production of memorials or markers, far simpler than the creatively customized monuments of the Victorian Era.

Forest Lawn Cemetery (1906) in Glendale, California, set up the modern pattern of the lawn cemetery or memorial garden emulated nationwide. Dr. Hubert Eaton, calling himself "the Builder," redefined the philosophy of death and exerted a standardized control at Forest Lawn after 1916, extending it to over 1,200 acres on four sites. Innovations included inconspicuous marker plaques set horizontally in meticulously manicured lawns and community mausoleums, buildings with individual niches for caskets, no longer called coffins.

Cremation offered a new, controversial alternative for disposal of the dead at the turn of the twentieth century. Mount Auburn installed one of the nation's first crematories in 1900, oven "retorts" for "incineration" to reduce the corpse to ashes or "cremains." Some larger cemeteries followed suit, also providing "columbaria" or niches for storage of ashes in small urns or boxes. Still, acceptance of cremation grew slowly over the course of the century and was slightly more popular in the West.

National Cemeteries

The War Department issued general orders in the first year of the Civil War, making Union commanders responsible for the burial of their men in recorded locations, sometimes in sections of cemeteries like Spring Grove and Cave Hill purchased with state funds. President Lincoln signed an act on 17 July 1862 authorizing the establishment of national cemeteries. On 19 November 1863, Lincoln dedicated the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, adjacent to an older rural cemetery, for the burial of Union soldiers who died on the war's bloodiest battlefield. In June of 1864, without ceremony, the Secretary of War designated the seized 200-acre estate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Arlington, Virginia, overlooking Washington, D.C., across the Potomac. Former Confederates dedicated grounds for their dead, often in large areas of existing cemeteries. By 1870, about 300,000 of the Union dead had been reinterred in national cemeteries; some moved from battlefields and isolated graves near where they had fallen.

After World War I, legislation increased the number of soldiers and veterans eligible for interment in national cemeteries. Grounds were dedicated abroad following both World War I and World War II. In 1973, a law expanded eligibility for burial to all honorably discharged veterans and certain family members. To accommodate veterans and the dead of other wars, Arlington grew to 408 acres by 1897 and to 612 acres by 1981. By 1981, with the annual burial rate exceeding 60,000 and expected to peak at 105,000 in 2010, new national cemeteries were needed, such as that dedicated on 770 acres at Fort Custer near Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1984.

Bibliography

Hancock, Ralph. The Forest Lawn Story. Los Angeles: Academy Publishers, 1955.

Jackson, Kenneth T., and Camilo José Vergara. Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989.

Linden-Ward, Blanche. Silent City on a Hill: Landscapes of Memory and Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989.

Sloane, David Charles. The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

—Blanche M. G. Linden

Areas that are set aside by public authority or private persons for the burial of the dead.

A public cemetery is open for use by the community at large while a private cemetery is used only by a small segment of a community or by a family.

A cemetery includes not only the actual grave sites but also surrounding areas such as avenues, walks, and grounds.

Cemeteries are not governed by laws that apply to real property or corporations due to their inherently different nature. Most states have established laws that specifically apply to cemeteries.

Establishment and Regulation

The establishment of a cemetery involves the process of formally designating a tract of land for use for the burial of the dead. It must be set apart, marked, and distinguished from adjoining ground as a graveyard.

The state, in the exercise of its police power, has the right to regulate the creation of cemeteries by providing for their establishment and discontinuance as well as to monitor their use. Private interests in the place of burial are subject to the control of public authorities, which have the right to require the disinterment of bodies if deemed necessary.

Burial sites may not be absolutely prohibited by legislative action inasmuch as they are considered indispensable and directly related to the public health. Provisions in corporate charters cannot prevent the exercise of police powers with regard to which lands may be used for burial purposes, since burial in certain places might create a public nuisance.

Regulation by Municipal Corporations

Subject to express legislative authority, and by virtue of its general police powers, a municipality may reasonably regulate places of burial within its borders. The key requirement is that a municipality may not act arbitrarily with regard to the regulations it adopts.

The power of a municipality to regulate cemeteries is an ongoing one that may be exercised as required by considerations of public health and welfare. Regulations may prohibit such things as future burials in existing cemeteries, the enlargement of existing cemeteries, or the establishment of new ones.

A municipality may own and maintain a cemetery when it is expressly authorized to do so. General control may be exercised over a cemetery that a municipality owns, but control may not be exercised arbitrarily, capriciously, or unreasonably.

Corporations and Associations

A cemetery corporation, as defined expressly by statute, is any corporation formed for the burial of the dead in a receptacle or vault. Such a corporation may or may not be organized for pecuniary profit and may or may not be organized under the general corporate law.

The members of a cemetery corporation are those people who own plots according to express statutory provisions. They cannot make a profit out of the sales of lots if the corporation is not for profit. Nor can they make a gift of their plot to another independent corporation.

If statute permits, cemetery corporations may issue stock and pay dividends to stockholders. Stockholders may enact bylaws.

Some statutes provide that a cemetery may give land shares, which are certificates entitling the holder to receive a portion of the profit from the subsequent sales of plots, in exchange for payment for the land purchased. This type of certificate is not a stock certificate, but is in the nature of a nonnegotiable promise to pay money.

Location

The establishment of cemeteries may be prohibited by state or local legislative bodies, but only under certain circumstances. The interment of dead bodies is necessary and proper and therefore the prohibition of the establishment of a cemetery must be based on the potential danger to human life or health. State and municipal bodies are not permitted to prohibit burial for such reasons as the value of adjoining land being lessened or because a cemetery might be a source of annoyance to inhabitants of the surrounding community.

Under some statutory provisions a cemetery cannot be established within a certain distance of a private residence, store, or other place of business without the owner's consent. Similarly, certain statutes provide that, prior to the establishment of a cemetery, consent must be obtained from the county or municipal authorities within whose limits the cemetery will be located.

Title and Rights of Owners of Plots, Grounds, or Graves

The purchaser of a plot in a cemetery is generally regarded as obtaining only a limited property right. He or she acquires a privilege, easement, or license to make burials in the purchased plot, exclusive of all other people, provided that the land remains a cemetery.

The plot owner's interest is a property right entitled to protection from invasion and the title is a legal estate. The owner's rights are subject to the police power of the state as well as the rules of the cemetery and any restrictions made in the contract of sale.

A cemetery corporation may cancel the contract of sale of a plot where regulations of the corporation that are part of the contract are violated by the sale due to a mistake of fact. A purchaser may, in turn, rescind the contract where substantial misrepresentations have been made by the corporation.

Plot holders cannot be prevented by cemetery owners from erecting markers, entering the grounds, or interring family members in the plots they own. If a plot owner dies intestate, the rights to the plot pass to the heirs in the same manner that personal property passes in the absence of a will. A gravestone or marker is the personal property of whoever places it near a grave and its ownership is passed to this person's heirs.

Abandonment is the only way in which the use of land as a cemetery may cease. It takes place either by removal of all the interred bodies or by neglect to such a degree that the property is no longer identifiable as a cemetery. The removal of bodies may be ordered by public authorities when necessitated by the public health. The owner of a cemetery may opt to discontinue the sale of plots as initially planned, but permission to do so from government officials might be a prerequisite.

Duties as to Care and Maintenance

The owner of a plot has the duty to care for and maintain the plot either personally or through an agent. A cemetery's trustees may supervise plots to prevent them from disintegrating to the point of unsightliness.

If a statute so requires, a cemetery association must care for its plots. If a charter imposes a duty upon the association to keep the grounds in repair, this obligation does not encompass plots sold to individuals.

A cemetery association has the duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition. This includes the proper maintenance of portions of the cemetery used for travel or occupation by attendants of burials.

Uniform and reasonable rules and regulations may be made for the care and management of lots by the proprietors of a cemetery. Such rules must be equal in their operation. An unreasonable rule would be to prohibit the owner of a lot from hiring his own caretaker; however, a rule requiring that such work be done by competent persons would be reasonable.

Right of Burial

Everyone is entitled to a decent burial in a suitable place. The right to be interred in a particular cemetery is an easement, license, or privilege. An element of this right is the privilege to be buried according to the usual custom in the community and pursuant to the rules and regulations set forth by the proprietor of the cemetery. When an individual does not purchase a plot subject to any restrictions on burial, the proprietors have no subsequent power to limit such right unreasonably.

An individual who obtains the right to be buried in a cemetery subject to the control of a religious organization takes the plot subject to the organization's rules. This may limit the burial right to its members or to those in com- munion with such organizations. The church has exclusive jurisdiction over the question of whether or not a person is in communion with a religious organization and thereby entitled to burial in its cemetery.

Interference with Owner's Rights

A cause of action may be based upon the interference with the rights of a plot owner. An unlawful and unwarranted interference with an individual's exercise of the right of burial in a cemetery lot is a tort. An infringement of the rights of a plot owner may be prevented by an injunction if an injury is threatened.

Either criminal or civil liability, or both, exist for trespass or other types of injuries to a cemetery or to individual burial plots.

If a burial ground or plot is wrongfully invaded or desecrated, an action of trespass may be brought against the wrongdoer.

Vandalism and destruction of tombstones are criminal offenses. The person who erects a tombstone may maintain an action for injury to it. After that person's death, his or her heirs may prosecute such an action.

Generally, the measure of damages for trespass is the cost of restoration. Since there is a strong public policy against injury to gravesites due to the indignity of the act, punitive damages — intended to deter future acts of desecration — may be awarded.

n.

An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager. The inscriptions following will serve to illustrate the success attained in these Olympian games:

        His virtues were so conspicuous that his enemies, unable to 
    overlook them, denied them, and his friends, to whose loose lives 
    they were a rebuke, represented them as vices.  They are here 
    commemorated by his family, who shared them.
    
        In the earth we here prepare a
        Place to lay our little Clara.
                                             Thomas M. and Mary Frazer
        P.S. -- Gabriel will raise her.

Tutor's tip: There was a certain "symmetry" (correspondence of opposite sides in shape, position, or size) in the layout of the "cemetery" (burial place).

Quotes:

"The fence around a cemetery is foolish, for those inside can't get out and those outside don't want to get in." - Arthur Brisbane

"The cemeteries are filled with people who thought the world couldn't get along without them." - American Proverb

"A cemetery is the only place where people don't try to keep up with the Joneses." - Source Unknown

"All work and no play makes one the wealthiest man in the cemetery." - Source Unknown

Finding oneself in a cemetery in a dream may indicate sadness or unresolved grief. Alternatively, it may simply represent one's "dead" past.

For other uses, see Cemetary.

This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (July 2007)

Island Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term cemetery (from Greek κοιμητήριον: sleeping place) implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are the place where the final ceremonies of death are observed. These ceremonies or rites differ according to cultural practice and religious belief.

Contents 1 Definition 2 Archaeology 3 Early Christian history 4 Graveyards replaced by cemeteries 5 Modern use and styles 6 Family cemeteries 6.1 Flowers 7 Unusual cemeteries 8 Cemeteries for pets 9 Cemeteries and superstition 10 See also 10.1 Other common types of burial places 10.2 Specific and rarer types of burial places 10.3 Removal of remains from cemeteries 10.4 Businesses and professions for cemeteries 10.5 Public holidays and traditions in relation to cemeteries 10.6 Resources to find cemetery locations or names of those buried 10.7 Other topics related to places of burial 11 References 12 External links

Definition

The Oxford English Dictionary states that a cemetery is "A burial-ground generally; now esp. a large public park or ground laid out expressly for the interment of the dead, and not being the ‘yard’ of any church. (Cemetery c)" and that it "... Originally applied to the Roman underground cemeteries or CATACOMBS (Cemetery a)"^[1]

In the Scots language or Northern English language a churchyard can also be known as a kirkyaird or kirkyard. However, it should be noted that a churchyard can also be any patch of land on church grounds, even without a place of burial. Graveyards are sometimes owned by the place of worship next to which they are situated. However, in America, private companies are increasingly purchasing and operating formerly church owned cemeteries. Some cemeteries are owned by independent non-profit cemetery organizations. The use of graveyards for burial of the dead was largely discontinued in towns from the 19th century onwards as they were replaced by cemeteries.

Archaeology

Main article: grave field

Further information: tomb and necropolis

Prehistoric cemeteries are sometimes referred to by the term 'grave field'. They are one of the chief sources of information on ancient and prehistoric cultures, and numerous archaeological cultures are defined by their burial customs, such as the Urnfield culture of the European Bronze Age.

Early Christian history

From about the 7th century, European burial was under the control of the Church and could only take place on consecrated church ground. Practices varied, but in continental Europe, bodies were usually buried in a mass grave until they had decomposed. The bones were then exhumed and stored in ossuaries, either along the arcaded bounding walls of the cemetery, or within the church under floor slabs and behind walls.

In most cultures those who were vastly rich, had important professions, were part of the nobility or were of any other high social status were usually buried in individual crypts inside or beneath the relevant place of worship with an indication of the name of the deceased, date of death and other biographical data. In Europe this was often accompanied with a depiction of their family coat of arms.

Most others were buried in graveyards again divided by social status. Families of the deceased who could afford the work of a stonemason had a headstone carved and set up over the place of burial with an indication of the name of the deceased, date of death and sometimes other biographical data. Usually, the more writing and symbols carved on the headstone, the more expensive it was. As with most other human property such as houses and means of transport, richer families used to compete for the artistic value of their family headstone in comparison to others around it, sometimes adding a statue (such as a weeping angel) on the top of the grave.

Those who could not pay for a headstone at all usually had some religious symbol made from wood on the place of burial such as a Christian cross, however this would quickly deteriorate under the rain or snow. Some families hired a blacksmith and had large crosses made from various metals put on the place of burial.

Graveyards replaced by cemeteries

A Soviet military cemetery on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia.

Main article: Graveyard

Various conditions in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century led to the burial of the dead in graveyards being discontinued. Among the reasons for this were:

• A very sharp rise in the size of the population during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution

• Continued outbreaks of highly infectious diseases in towns and cities due to lack of public hygiene. Many graveyards in cities were located on land enclosed within the city walls.

• Limits to, and lack of, space in graveyards for new headstones and dead bodies.

As a consequence of these reasons, city authorities, national governments and places of worship all changed their regulations for burials. In many European states, burial in graveyards was outlawed altogether either by royal decrees or government legislation.

In some cases, skeletons were exhumed from graveyards and moved into ossuaries or catacombs. A large action of this type occurred in 18th century Paris when human remains were transferred from graveyards all over the city to the Catacombs of Paris.

However in most places across Europe completely new places of burial were established away from heavily populated areas and outside of old towns and city centers. Many new cemeteries became municipally-owned, and thus independent from churches and their churchyards, however even these were still segregated by the faith of the deceased to be buried there.

Thus cemeteries (certainly in their modern landscaped or garden cemetery form), rather than graveyards, became the principal place of burial for the deceased and continue to this day.

Modern use and styles

The Laird's traditional Scottish graveyard at Kindrogan House, Strathardle.

The town cemetery on the plains of Calhan, Colorado.

The earliest of the spacious landscaped-style cemeteries is Père Lachaise in Paris. This embodied the idea of state- rather than church-controlled burial – a concept that spread through Europe with the Napoleonic invasions, and sometimes became adapted leading to the opening of cemeteries by private companies. The shift to municipal cemeteries or those established by private companies was usually accompanied by the establishing of spacious, landscaped, burial grounds outside of the city limits.

Cemeteries are usually a respected or protected area, and often include a crematorium for the cremation of the dead. The violation of the graves or buildings is usually considered a very serious crime, and punishments are often severe.

The style of cemeteries varies greatly internationally. For example, in the United States and many European countries, modern cemeteries usually have many tombstones placed on open spaces. In Russia, tombstones are usually placed in small fenced family lots. (This was once common practice in American cemeteries as well, and such fenced family plots are still visible in some older American cemeteries.)

Cemetery excavations, like this one in Madrid, can alleviate overcrowding.

As historic cemeteries begin to reach their capacity for full burials, alternative memorialization, such as collective memorials for cremated individuals, is becoming more common. Different cultures have different attitudes to destruction of cemeteries and use of the land for construction. In some countries it is considered normal to destroy the graves, while in others the graves are traditionally respected for a century or more. In many cases, after a suitable period of time has elapsed, the headstones are removed and the now former cemetery is converted to a recreational park or construction site. A more recent trend, particularly in South American cities, involves constructing high-rise buildings to house graves.^[2]

Cemeteries in the United States may be relocated if the land is required for other reasons. For instance, many cemeteries in the southeastern United States were relocated by the Tennessee Valley Authority from areas about to be flooded by dam construction.^[3] Cemeteries may also be moved so that the land can be reused for transportation structures,^[4][5] public buildings,^[6] or even private development.^[7] Cemetery relocation is not necessarily possible in other parts of the world; in Alberta, Canada, for instance, the Cemetery Act expressly forbids the relocation of cemeteries or the mass exhumation of marked graves for any reason whatsoever.^[8] This has caused significant problems in the provision of transportation services to the southern half of the City of Calgary, as the main southbound road connecting the south end of the city with downtown threads through a series of cemeteries founded in the 1930s. The light rail transit line running to the south end eventually had to be built directly under the road.

Family cemeteries

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.

The grave of an infant at Horton, Northamptonshire

While uncommon today, family (or private) cemeteries were a matter of practicality during the settlement of America. If a municipal or religious cemetery had not been established, settlers would seek out a small plot of land, often in wooded areas bordering their fields, to begin a family plot. Sometimes, several families would arrange to bury their dead together. While some of these sites later grew into true cemeteries, many were forgotten after a family moved away or died out. Today, it is not unheard of to discover groupings of tombstones, ranging from a few to a dozen or more, on undeveloped land. As late twentieth century suburban sprawl pressured the pace of development in formerly rural areas, it became increasingly common for larger exurban properties to be encumbered by "religious easements," which are legal requirements for the property owner to permit periodic maintenance of small burial plots located on the property but technically not owned with it. Often, cemeteries are relocated to accommodate building. However, if the cemetery is not relocated, descendants of people buried there may visit the cemetery.^[9]

Holland Cemetery: A rural cemetery in northeast Oklahoma

More recent is the practice of families with large estates choosing to create private cemeteries in the form of burial sites, monuments, crypts, or mausoleums on their property; the mausoleum at Fallingwater is an example of this practice. Burial of a body at a site may protect the location from redevelopment, with such estates often being placed in the care of a trust or foundation. Presently, state regulations have made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to start private cemeteries; many require a plan to care for the site in perpetuity. Private cemeteries are nearly always forbidden on incorporated residential zones. Notwithstanding, many people will bury a beloved pet on the family property, knowing fully that this violates local health code.

Flowers

In American cemeteries flowers are common gifts brought to dead loved ones. They are brought during major holidays and birthdays. Privately owned cemeteries will often throw away these flowers after a few weeks in order to keep the space maintained.

Unusual cemeteries

• The Merry Cemetery in Săpânţa, northern Romania.
• The Cross Bones, a disused burial ground in Southwark, London for prostitutes
• The British Cemetery in Madrid, a cemetery for Protestants and Spanish suicides.

Cemeteries for pets

Main article: Pet cemetery

The Cimetière des Chiens in Asnières-sur-Seine in Paris is an elaborate pet cemetery believed to be the first zoological necropolis in the world.

Cemeteries and superstition

Jewish cemetery "Heiliger Sand" in Worms, Germany

In many countries, cemeteries are objects of superstition and legend; they are sometimes used (usually at night-time) for black magic ceremonies or similar clandestine happenings. This legend of zombies, as investigated by Wade Davis in The Serpent and the Rainbow, is exceptional among cemetery myths.

See also

• List of cemeteries
• Corpse road
• Association of American Cemetery Superintendents
• Skull and crossbones (Spanish cemetery)

Other common types of burial places

• Necropolis
• Ossuary
• Columbarium
• Graveyard
• Churchyard
• Tomb
• Catacomb
• Crypt
• Mass grave
• Unmarked grave
• Tumulus

Specific and rarer types of burial places

• Mausoleum
• Reliquary
• Sepulchre
• Potter's Field
• Eco-cemetery
• Stupa
• Shaft and chamber tomb
• Stone ship
• Megalithic tomb
• Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• Cremating

Removal of remains from cemeteries

• Exhumation
• Grave robbing
• Resurrectionists

Businesses and professions for cemeteries

• Morgue
• Funeral home
• Undertaker
• Gravedigger
• Stonemason

Public holidays and traditions in relation to cemeteries

• All Souls' Day
• Day of the Dead
• Saturday of Souls
• Qingming Festival
• Memorial Day
• National day of mourning

Resources to find cemetery locations or names of those buried

• First Parish Cemetery and Historical Site
• Hale Collection - Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery Inscriptions.
• Obituary
• Find A Grave
• The Political Graveyard
• Poets' Graves
• Slovak Cemetery Database
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Worcester County Memorial Park
• HeadStones Genealogy

Other topics related to places of burial

• Graves, cemeteries, and funerals of different religions and ethnic groups (photographs, in German)
• Elephant's graveyard

References

1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition 1989, online edition
2. ^ News: New trend: Cemetery Skyscrapers
3. ^ Cemeteries Relocated by TVA. Accessed July 13, 2009.
4. ^ "O'Hare Growth May Mean Moving a Cemetery". NPR, November 19, 2005. Accessed July 13, 2009.
5. ^ St. Johannes Cemetery Relocation. Accessed July 13, 2009.
6. ^ "Remains in 19th century graves downtown ID'd as soldiers". The Tuscon Citizen, April 17, 2009. Accessed July 13, 2009.
7. ^ "Cemetery Relocation Battle Ongoing". Platte County Citizen, July 4, 2007. Accessed July 13, 2009.
8. ^ [http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1240.cfm Cemetery Act of Alberta. Accessed July 13, 2009.
9. ^ Alfred Brophy, Grave Matters: The Ancient Rights of the Graveyard

• Colvin, Howard. Architecture and the After-Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
• Curl, James Stevens. Death and Architecture. Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2002.
• Etlin, Richard A. The Architecture of Death: the transformation of the cemetery in eighteenth-century Paris. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984.
• Grossman, Janet Burnett. Greek Funerary Sculpture. Catalogue of the Collection at the Getty Villa. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001.
• Salisbury, Mike. From My Death May Life Come Forth. A Feasibility Study of the Woodland Cemetery in Canada Earthartist
• Worpole, Ken. Last Landscapes: the architecture of the cemetery in the West, Reaktion Books, London, 2003

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cemetery

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Common misspelling(s) of cemetery

• cemetarey
• cemetary

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kirkegård

Nederlands (Dutch)
begraafplaats

Français (French)
n. - cimetière

Deutsch (German)
n. - Friedhof

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - νεκροταφείο (εκτός προαυλίου ναού), κοιμητήριο

Italiano (Italian)
cimitero

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cemitério (m)

Русский (Russian)
кладбище

Español (Spanish)
n. - cementerio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kyrkogård, begravningsplats

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
墓地, 公墓

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 墓地, 公墓

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 공동 묘지

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 墓地, 共同墓地

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مقبرة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בית-קברות, בית-עלמין‬

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