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It sounds like something out of an apocalyptic novel: popular belief in demons and vampires stalking a land torn by war, the populace whipped into hysteria by clerics spreading fear of the devil and witches. But that was the scene in 17th century Poland, where archaeologists are researching five burials of deceased people who had sickles placed across their throats. Their community thought they were demons and wanted to keep them in their graves, the archaeologists speculate.

Tent or Comb graves..

Hanging Coffins!

On Cult of Weird today: The remarkably well-preserved remains of a young girl holding a rose, who died 145 years ago, were found beneath a home in San Francisco where the Odd Fellows Cemetery used to be. It is believed she was left behind when the city evicted its dead in the early 1900s, relocating graves to the nearby town of Colma.

Child Burial

The burial of infants in jars was a common custom in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine. The jar was generally placed under the living room floor possibly to keep the child within the family circle.

Ghassul

An ancient mortuary where corpses were stripped of their flesh so their families could take them with them on their travels has been uncovered by archaeologists in Bolivia.

The mortuary was found in the foothills of the Andes by researchers at the Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

Published in the journal Antiquity, From Bodies To Bones: Death And Mobility In The Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia, is a study that looks at how a society dating back between 2,000 and 1,500 years ago disposed of their dead.

Morgue slabs in St Peter’s Mortuary .

84-year-old grave digger Josephine Smith

So I’m compiling a list of ‘essential’ books or ‘interesting reads’ for those of us studying mortuary science, funeral service, or death care and I’m keeping track of what I’ve read so far.

I’d love to know if there are any other titles that should be on my list!

1. “A Life In Death: Memoirs of a Cotswold Funeral Director” – James Baker (2012)

2. “Bodies We Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World’s Top CSI Training School” – Jarrett Hallcox and Amy Welch (2006) 

3. “Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love” – Lisa Carlson (1997)

4. “Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician” – Shinmon Aoki, Wayne S. Yokoyama, Jon Turner and Taitetsu Unno (2002)

5. “Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial” – Penny Colman (1997)

6. “Cremation and the Funeral Director: Successfully Meeting the Challenge” – Michael W. Kubasak (1990)

7. “Curtains: Adventure of an Undertaker-In-Training” – Tom Jokinen (2010)

8. “Death in Early America: The History and Folklore of Customs and Superstitions of Early Medicine, Funerals, Burials, and Mourning” – Margaret M. Coffin (1976)

9. “Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies?” – Kenneth V. Iserson (1994)

10. “Does this Mean You’ll See Me Naked?: Field Notes from a Funeral Director” – Robert D. Webster (2011)

11. “Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician” – Michelle Williams (2010)

12. “Dying Well: The Prospect for Growth at the End of Life” – Dr. Ira Byock (1998)

13. “Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die” – Michael Largo (1994)

14. “Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying” – Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley (2012)

15. “Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death” – Lisa Carlson (2011)

16. “Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial” – Mark Harris (2008)

17. “Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying” – Lynne Ann DeSpeider and Albert Lee Strickland (2010)

18. “Mortal Remains: Death in Early America” – Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein (2002)

19. “Mortician Diaries: The Dead-Honest Truth from a Life Spent with Death” – June Nadle (2006) 

20. “Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt” – Todd Harra and Ken McKenzie (2010)

21. “Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner City Funeral Home” – Sheri Booker (2013)

22. “Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America” – Stephen Prothero (2002)

23. “Restless In Peace: A Psychic Mortician’s Encounters with Those who Refuse to Rest” – Mariah de la Croix (2012)

24. “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife” – Mary Roach (2005)

25. “Stiff: The Curiosities of Human Cadavers” – Mary Roach (2003)

26. “The American Way of Death (Revisited)” – Jessica Mitford (1963, 1998)

27. “The Bedside Book of Death” – Robert Wilkins (1998)

28. “The Corpse: A History” – Christine Quigley (2005)

29. “The Four Things That Matter Most” – Dr. Ira Byock (2004)

30. “The High Cost of Dying: A Guide to Funeral Planning” – Gregory W. Young (1994)

31. “The History of American Funeral Directing” – Robert Wesley Habenstein (2001)

32. “The Loved One” – Evelyn Waugh (2012)*

33. “To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death” – Suzanne E. Smith (2010)

34. “What We Do When Someone Dies” – Caroline Arnold (1987)

Death Becomes Us: Why We All Need to See Death and Decay by Carla Valentine

We have things the wrong way round. Confronting death; contemplating it or being “Death Positive” is natural, not titillating or macabre. It isn’t wrong for people to spend time with deceased loved ones or be curious about decomposition and medical specimens, and it isn’t strange to consider your own death. It promotes awareness, respect and happiness, via a deeper appreciation of nature and of life.