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This has been done over centuries, and is still standard in Europe, where the embalming fad never has caught on.

by summm 7y ago

masklinn 7y ago
> is still standard in Europe AFAIK that's not really true, europeans are not usually highly embalmed but they're mostly buried in coffins in vaults rented for years or decades (depending on the country). AFAIK https://i2.wp.com/www.talkdeath.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1070572160.jpg?resize=1100%2C734 https://i2.wp.com/www.talkdeath.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/... is a pretty typical-looking cemetery for western europe at least (some countries tend towards just the headstone and no vault, but as an other commenter notes that doesn't mean the body readily decomposes either)
- karka91 7y ago
  hi, european here. Never heard about composting here. Those are not vaults. Those are just holes in ground with a cover on top. It's mostly decorative and there so that you don't walk on top of the coffin. We don't usually own these also. Usually city where you live has a cemetery that must provide a place for the coffin.
  - wielebny 7y ago
    In Poland municipality provides a place in ground, but for at most 20 years. After that the place is recycled for another burial. You're free to buy it though to prolong that term and in my opinion it's quite common among the elder ones.
    - pndy 7y ago
      > In Poland municipality provides a place in ground That would apply to municipal graveyard while church owned ones are managed separately. In either case, if grave spot fee isn't paid on time, space goes back to the pool while remains of previous "occupant" are transferred to the ossuarium - IIRC.
mcv 7y ago
I wanted to say that there's plenty of embalming in Europe, but I figured I'd check to verify first. Turns out that in Netherland until 2009 it used to be illegal to embalm the dead, with an exception for members of the royal family.
tremon 7y ago
Natural burial is completely different to composting. Have you read the article? When someone dies, their body is taken to a human composting facility [..] After wrapping the deceased in a simple shroud, friends and family carry the body to the top of the core which contains the natural decomposition system [..] It would be done in a contained vessel which [..] would be rotated to provide physical disruption so oxygen could access all parts of the composting material. This would also help control the moisture level. By the time we completed our trials, we were developing material that was very pleasant to handle, it was a very fine compost that was relatively stable, [and] it smelled good Where in Europe is this standard practice, exactly?
- josefx 7y ago
  Active composting isn't. However most graves seem to already be efficient enough at it that you can bury a new corpse in one every few years without being blocked by the remains of the previous inhabitant.
  - magashna 7y ago
    Other posts in this thread mention issues with the soil composition, like if it has a high amount of clay, bodies are well preserved. Really may depend on where specifically you're burying the bodies.

This has been done over centuries, and is still standard in Europe, where the embalming fad never has caught on.

by summm 7y ago

This has been done over centuries, and is still standard in Europe, where the embalming fad never has caught on.

> is still standard in Europe AFAIK that's not really true, europeans are not usually highly embalmed but they're mostly buried in coffins in vaults rented for years or decades (depending on the country). AFAIK https://i2.wp.com/www.talkdeath.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_1070572160.jpg?resize=1100%2C734 https://i2.wp.com/www.talkdeath.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/... is a pretty typical-looking cemetery for western europe at least (some countries tend towards just the headstone and no vault, but as an other commenter notes that doesn't mean the body readily decomposes either)

karka91 7y ago
hi, european here. Never heard about composting here. Those are not vaults. Those are just holes in ground with a cover on top. It's mostly decorative and there so that you don't walk on top of the coffin. We don't usually own these also. Usually city where you live has a cemetery that must provide a place for the coffin.
- wielebny 7y ago
  In Poland municipality provides a place in ground, but for at most 20 years. After that the place is recycled for another burial. You're free to buy it though to prolong that term and in my opinion it's quite common among the elder ones.
  - pndy 7y ago
    > In Poland municipality provides a place in ground That would apply to municipal graveyard while church owned ones are managed separately. In either case, if grave spot fee isn't paid on time, space goes back to the pool while remains of previous "occupant" are transferred to the ossuarium - IIRC.

mcv 7y ago

I wanted to say that there's plenty of embalming in Europe, but I figured I'd check to verify first. Turns out that in Netherland until 2009 it used to be illegal to embalm the dead, with an exception for members of the royal family.

tremon 7y ago

Natural burial is completely different to composting. Have you read the article? When someone dies, their body is taken to a human composting facility [..] After wrapping the deceased in a simple shroud, friends and family carry the body to the top of the core which contains the natural decomposition system [..] It would be done in a contained vessel which [..] would be rotated to provide physical disruption so oxygen could access all parts of the composting material. This would also help control the moisture level. By the time we completed our trials, we were developing material that was very pleasant to handle, it was a very fine compost that was relatively stable, [and] it smelled good Where in Europe is this standard practice, exactly?

josefx 7y ago
Active composting isn't. However most graves seem to already be efficient enough at it that you can bury a new corpse in one every few years without being blocked by the remains of the previous inhabitant.
- magashna 7y ago
  Other posts in this thread mention issues with the soil composition, like if it has a high amount of clay, bodies are well preserved. Really may depend on where specifically you're burying the bodies.