Ever wondered why people are buried in a horizontal position than a vertical one?
Because they’re dead tired?
=D>
In many places, you just don’t want to dig eight feet down.
Rocks.
High water table.
Can’t get out of the hole once you’ve dug it.
Ever dig a deep hole, Humeirah?
Somehow, I think not.
Yes but with our scarce land, it would be more ‘economical’ to do that, don’t you think?
with scarce land it is more economical to cremate them
-Imp
People would rather think of their bodies being decomposed by the micro organisms in the soil than having their brains exploded during cremation…
my body isn’t decomposing right away… I’m an organ donor and the rest is going to be burned
-Imp
Well, I think there are places where the land is scarce where they do just that. Here, in the US, we got plenty o’land. But I think the tradition started back a couple of years, when there was lots of land, lots of places.
Where do you live, Hum?
On an island 
The point being that generally there must have been a better reason than just abundance of land for a horizantal burial.
But then even if we planned on a vertical one, people would just be really upset with the innovation…
Yeah, well, like I say, dig a hole four feet across and eight or ten feet deep in rocky, clay soil and get back to us.
Have you ever seen someone sleeping while standing? I have once, on a party, he was standing in the middle of a room, looking dead. It really freaked me out.
I haven’t seen an actual standing corpse, and I’m really glad for that. Stiffs should just drop to the gound and stay down.
How different are these mensurations in terms of sweat lost from a horizontol burial, I wonder…
Have you?
Tell me about it…
There are notable exceptions to the horizontal rule.
Herman Hollerith, for example, was buried nine-edge face down.
Wow. You really haven’t, huh? Topsoil is light and fluffy, compared to the subsoil beneath it. If you dig the same volume both ways, the easier hole by far is the one that includes the most topsoil. It’s also easier to dig out and lift big rocks form a wide, shallow hole than it is from a deep, narrow one, for a couple of reasons that I will be happy to elaborate if needed. And a hole four feet wide but five, then six, then seven feet deep doesn’t give you much elbow room, which is handy in hefting the dirt out of the hole. It’s not so much fun hefting it up eight feet to beging with. Roots can be a problem at any depth, depending on the roots. But sometimes it’s easier to chop the bigger ones near the surface than the stringy ones you may find deeper.
Those are just the very basics.
You really should try it. You’ll see for yourself very quickly.
Thanks for that JennyHeart . Yes I just googled him and it appears that he designed this vertical card sorter.
He was even talking about this brand new form of burial for ‘modern humans’.
Charming! Wonder how those managing the cem in Derrinallum will get by…
Thursday, May 05, 2005
By Peter Leo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Standing up down under
Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette
“Perhaps you’ve heard that the dead in Australia will get a chance to go vertically, if not gently into the good night. Vertical burial has been approved for a new cemetery in Derrinallum, 110 miles west of Melbourne. It would be a first for Australia, but it’s our understanding stand-up burials are allowed in the Netherlands and in Asian countries where land is scarce. It’s a lot cheaper (average price: $780) than a traditional burial – body bags are used instead of coffins – and the space-saving aspect cheers environmentalists. The idea makes a lot of sense but not to Aussie morticians. One, Brad Tattersall, exhibited the sort of literal interpretation of the afterlife that makes the funeral industry go: “I think I’ll deserve a well-earned rest and I don’t want to be standing up forever.” Little known Pittsburgh fact: The Tomb of the Unknown Bowler pioneered vertical burial in this country. Just look at it. The shape of the monument is a dead giveaway.”
With a backhoe, I would guess. But we didn’t always have backhoes. Still, people died anyway.
Are you actually a resident of Earth?
Horizontal burial started with the first notion of an afterlife, where the corpse was buried as if “asleep” waiting to awaken. In some cultures, cremation has been the practice for millenia. The practical issues of hand-dug burial sites are obvious, as faust suggested. I’m with Imp. Burial is of religious significance. If you want to save space, cremation and scattering the ashes is the answer. The corpse won’t mind.
If you’re really eco-minded, there is a buddhist sect that, upon the death of a monk, places the body out in an open field for the vultures to consume. The whole monastery and local villagers turn out to watch the body be consumed by the birds. Sort of a celebration of death returning to life? Anyway, after a suitable period of weathering, the bones are picked up and stacked in crypts in the monastery. Pretty cool huh?