Burial. A Reference.
This is very western culture, and even then I couldn’t include everything. I didn’t want to make this post too long, so it’s just the basics. ‘Tis the season!
MAUSOLEUM: External, free-standing above ground monument enclosing an interment space a deceased person or people
- Monument without the interment = CENOTAPH
HYPOGEUM/HYPOGAEUM usually refers to an underground temple or tomb
- Catacombs and burial vaults are a type of hypogeum
CATACOMBS: Any human-made subterranean passageways used as a burial place
COLUMBARIUM: A place for the storage of urns containing cremated remains
- Columbariums be a type of mausoleum or hypogeum, depending whether it is above or below ground
OSSUARY/OSSUARIUM: First defined as a container for bones. Now describes a room in which bones are placed after being dug up from a temporary grave
- Thus synonymous with a CHARNEL HOUSE - Ossuaries can sometimes be found in catacombs
BURIAL VAULT: Structural, underground tomb, originally vaulted and are often privately owned
- When placed beneath a church or in a churchyard it is a CRYPT
SEPULCHRE: The cavity beneath the altar slab for containing relics of martyrs or a recess in which the Eucharist was deposited and taken out at Easter in commemoration of the Resurrection
RELIQUARY: container for relics, as bones, or pieces of clothing, or object
LOCULUS/LOCULI: A compartment or niche that houses a body
CEMETERY: A large public ground for the dead
- Cemeteries are typically not one denomination and are not attached to a single place of worship
CHURCHYARD/GRAVEYARD: A patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church
