Historic Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC

Death in Tuscany

I am lying on a hillside in Tuscany pretending to be dead.  My body cells merge with the grass and dirt.  I would be the organic being I strive to be.  A wind courses through the trees, the few left by  industrious firewood harvesters.  They are wise enough to leave shade trees, well-spaced saplings and venerable flowering fruit trees.  

An octopus-shaped cloud obscures the sun.  A few minutes ago it was a flying goddess with a swan on her back.  The clothes under my body would be better on, but then have buried me naked so I know I am alive.

Had to happen sooner or later: Caskets and funeral planning are coming to the mall. 

CBS News reports that Forest Lawn - cemetery of the stars - has established kiosk sales points in SoCal suburban malls.

The death business might be in decline if they're coming out from behind shuttered and curtained "funeral homes" and setting up consultation centers in commercial shopping centers.  Will this mean more transparency in the American business model of fleecing relatives of the dead with overpriced sateen and velour lined boxes sealed in expensive hardwood coffins and even more expensive metal containers?  So wasteful.  

Jessica Mitford's milestone investigation The American Way of Death points out that while the death industry might try different window dressing, it is still  bunko.  Funeral directors and their ghoulish henchmen the embalmers, need more regulation.  Competition should be encouraged; Americans need a low-priced option  -- simple containers and inexpensive burial or cremation options.
Embalming is not necessary and not required in many locations.

Intelligent and eco-sensitive folks can arrange burials efficiently and relatively waste-free with a cardboard casket or natural burial at many locations.

Meanwhile, a company called Til We Meet Again which specializes in lifestyle caskets and military funerals, has opened stores in Arizona, Louisiana, Kansas, Indiana and Texas, according to the CBS report and the company's website.

Stack the Deck

A Labor Member of Parliament from Scotland proposed in 1996 that London opt for double-decker graves to accommodate its problem of overcrowded cemeteries.

The plan to deal with over-crowded cemeteries with double decker graves was finally approved in 2008.

Lost Head to Skull Collector

The University of Chicago Press has issued a paperback edition of The Skull Collectors, just the type of book Open Grave enjoys.  Author Ann Fabian  reports the collecting habits of Philadelphia physician Samuel George Morton and his 1,000 skulls acquired from around the globe.  Dr. Morton was intent on cataloging racial differences and just might have had a pre-determined outcome in mind.

His work was re-evaluated in 1978 by Stephen Jay Gould who used updated statistical analysis to find the skulls about equal among the five groups Morton identified.  Gould also noted Morton selectively included or excluded specimens and rounded off data.  His analysis was published in The Mismeasure of Man published in 1981 and revised with a new introduction in 1996.

After reading about Samuel Morton's skull-typing work, one possible impulse would be to hasten to the Biodiversity Heritage Library at Internet Archive to read online or download a copy of Crania Americana.

Though Morton's comparative study of the skulls of aboriginal peoples in North and South America is flawed science, at least there are stunning illustrations.

Photograph of a lithograph illustration from Crania Americana.
Photo: University of Pennsylvania Museum 

Scuba Cemetery

Eternal Reefs and other companies like Great Burial Reef  and Living Reef Memorial offer underwater memorials for the deceased.  Reef balls or other concrete structures hold remains of family members or a community. The cremated remains mixed with concrete to create a reef ball weigh more than 50 pounds and sit underwater in a hive shape structure that can weight up to 4,000 pounds.  It's not going to get lost at sea.

Burial Reef
Photo: treehugger.com

Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford, Connecticut

Wonder if  Skull and Bones, the secret society for boys-not-yet-men at Yale University

Skull and Bones, Yale University
Photo: en.Wikipedia.org

ever cruised the 30-odd miles from New Haven up to Hartford to practice their skulduggery at the Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford?

The Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven was closer  -- there's even a section just for Yale College -- but can't you just see those rich bad-lads tossing bootleg bubbly in Dick's Stutz-Bearcat and motoring to Connecticut's other city on a midnight lark?   

Gravestones of the Lawrence family
Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, Connecticut
Photo: Connecticut Historical Society
and Connecticut History online

Dating to 1640 and continuing to the 1800s, the burial ground is the oldest historic landmark in Hartford.

The headstones range from plain style with just the facts about the deceased to stones with carved ornamentation of death's heads, angels and cherubs.  Ground stones, tablets and table stones mark the final resting places of Hartford's early English and French Huguenot settlers.

A brochure produced by the Ancient Burying Ground Association outlines a self-guided walking tour with detailed information  on notable headstones, genealogy and regional history.

A short video on the graveyard provides historic and cultural orientation.

More information:

Connecticut Visit - Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford

Connecticut Historical Society Museum & Library

Connecticut History