Categories: life
Date: 29 March 2008 00:24:13
While excavating the clutter, I came across some items which were still wrapped in newspaper from my move. One page of newspaper particularly caught my eye. It was from Die Zeit, 30 Oktober 2003. It was a long article about the disposal of corpses.
I remember the Lödgerin being puzzled by the graveyard opposite which I live as all the graves therein are at least 200 years old. She explained that there aren't such old graveyards in Germany as graves are reused after about 25 years. (The Germans always were at the forefront of recycling measures...). The article in the newspaper talked about how corpses weren't decaying quickly enough (something to do with the robust nature of modern coffins and artificial fibres in clothing), so those that deal with such matters were doing something about it. Rather than using traditional coffins, they were using concrete chambers with plenty of room for fresh air - 40 cubic metres of oxygen does the trick apparently. One firm was not leaving anything to chance but pumping air through the chambers to make sure everything returned to dust.
This method seems to be popular in Catholic areas of Germany as they are not in favour of cremations. Clearly, with 650,000 burials a year a solution had to be found. The report says that some people were not keen on the idea of a concrete tomb but the head of the burial chamber company assured his future clients that they would not be lying in the mud. He even went so far as to mention that the most famous of all Christians had lain in a tomb. His demanding customer countered "Yes, but he didn't like it, either."
On Easter Monday, I went for a walk with a group of people. Out in the middle of nowhere - where all you could see were a couple of farms in the distance - we came across Stoney Littleton Long Barrow. This is a Neolithic burial chamber i.e. about 5,000 years old. It looked almost part of the general landscape - especially as there was a small flock of sheep grazing on the top of the barrow, a sort of grassy mound. You could enter the chamber and walk a few metres inside. I suppose the really determined could wriggle on their stomachs to get even further inside but I wasn't in the mood. Quite amazing to think of people living on that hillside all those years ago and some of their civilisation still exists. Excellent construction skills.