5 ms·

I don't know why "hermetically sealed" is anything remotely desirable for someone to be buried in. As if you're protecting yourself from some gross fate of bei

I don't know why "hermetically sealed" is anything remotely desirable for someone to be buried in. As if you're protecting yourself from some gross fate of being in the ground. Who cares? More gross (if that's your concern) is being a sealed capsule full of goo that can't escape anywhere for a millennium. Wouldn't you rather be absorbed back into the earth to be one with the elements?

MontagFTB 5y ago
My guess is that if the top of the casket is close to the surface, decomposition gasses would leak out and attract carrion-eating animals. Not to mention the smell.
- monocasa 5y ago
  If it's hermetically sealed, where are those decomposition gasses going to go? A field full of dead bodies in pressurized cans waiting to go off for decades doesn't sound like a great time.
  - willcipriano 5y ago
    Grandpa would be pleased to know that his gas made grandma furious and horrified one last time.
- DocTomoe 5y ago
  In standard, central-european graveyards, there is a particular "graveyard smell", which lingers for decades even after burials are stopped. I always figured that is created by decomposition gasses escaping the ground, mixed with wet soil and standard funerary plants (often conifers).
Bayart 5y ago
If anything, an hermiticaly sealed body is much more interesting to scientists. See the St Bees man. His 14th c. corpse was still fresh as his lead casket remained sealed.
jldugger 5y ago
Mebbe something about whatever diseases you had leaking into the water table?
- deliberateJack 5y ago
  A good portion of you goes down the drain and the sewers probably leak into the water table.
ComputerGuru 5y ago
I actually just commented on this very issue in reply to a tangential question about the direction/orientation of burial [0]. In Islam, burial should be in a shroud and not a coffin specifically so that the body may decompose quickly; this is actually rarely an option due to specific laws and regulations in Western countries, but it’s changing due to ecological interests. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30547984 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30547984
trts 5y ago
> Wouldn't you rather be absorbed back into the earth to be one with the elements? Yes, but this will happen anyway. I doubt the occupant has a preference on timing.

MontagFTB 5y ago

My guess is that if the top of the casket is close to the surface, decomposition gasses would leak out and attract carrion-eating animals. Not to mention the smell.

monocasa 5y ago
If it's hermetically sealed, where are those decomposition gasses going to go? A field full of dead bodies in pressurized cans waiting to go off for decades doesn't sound like a great time.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  Grandpa would be pleased to know that his gas made grandma furious and horrified one last time.
DocTomoe 5y ago
In standard, central-european graveyards, there is a particular "graveyard smell", which lingers for decades even after burials are stopped. I always figured that is created by decomposition gasses escaping the ground, mixed with wet soil and standard funerary plants (often conifers).

Bayart 5y ago

If anything, an hermiticaly sealed body is much more interesting to scientists. See the St Bees man. His 14th c. corpse was still fresh as his lead casket remained sealed.

jldugger 5y ago

Mebbe something about whatever diseases you had leaking into the water table?

deliberateJack 5y ago
A good portion of you goes down the drain and the sewers probably leak into the water table.

ComputerGuru 5y ago

I actually just commented on this very issue in reply to a tangential question about the direction/orientation of burial [0]. In Islam, burial should be in a shroud and not a coffin specifically so that the body may decompose quickly; this is actually rarely an option due to specific laws and regulations in Western countries, but it’s changing due to ecological interests. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30547984 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30547984

trts 5y ago

> Wouldn't you rather be absorbed back into the earth to be one with the elements? Yes, but this will happen anyway. I doubt the occupant has a preference on timing.