The fascinating history of cemeteries

Spindly trees, rusted gates,

crumbling stone, a solitary mourner—

these things come to mind
when we think of cemeteries.

But not so long ago,

many burial grounds were lively places,

with blooming gardens and crowds of people

strolling among the headstones.

How did our cemeteries
become what they are today?

Some have been around for centuries,

like the world’s largest, Wadi al-Salaam,

where more than five million
people are buried.

But most of the places we’d recognize
as cemeteries are much younger.

In fact, for much of human history,

we didn’t bury our dead at all.

Our ancient ancestors had many other ways
of parting with the dead loved ones.

Some were left in caves,

others in trees or on mountaintops.

Still others were sunk in lakes,

put out to sea, ritually cannibalized,
or cremated.

All of these practices,

though some may seem strange today,

were ways of venerating the dead.

By contrast, the first known burials
about 120,000 years ago

were likely reserved for transgressors,

excluding them from the usual rites
intended to honor the dead.

But the first burials revealed some
advantages over other practices:

they protected bodies from scavengers
and the elements,

while shielding loved ones from the
sight of decay.

These benefits may have shifted
ancient people’s thinking

toward graves designed to honor the dead,

and burial became more common.

Sometimes, these graves contained
practical or ritual objects,

suggesting belief in an afterlife

where the dead might need such tools.

Communal burials first appeared in North
Africa and West Asia

around 10 to 15,000 years ago,

around the same time as the first
permanent settlements in these areas.

These burial grounds created permanent places to commemorate the dead. The nomadic Scythians littered the steppes with grave mounds known as kurgans. The Etruscans built expansive necropoles, their grid-patterned streets lined with tombs . In Rome, subterranean catacombs housed both cremation urns and intact remains. The word cemetery, or “sleeping chamber”, was first used by ancient Greeks, who built tombs in graveyards at the edges of their cities.