Posted on 01/07/2008 1:35:23 PM PST by forkinsocket
Strange as it may seem, the dead have quit rotting in German cemeteries -- they are turning into wax-like corpses. Will the use of burial chambers solve the problem? Or is extensive soil reconditioning the only viable alternative?
Cemeteries are supposed to be the quietest places on earth. But that notion may soon have to be laid to rest: Exhumation experts are currently conducting large-scale digging operations in German graveyards, belying the very concept of eternal peace.
Corpses are no longer decaying in many German cemeteries. Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has become so rampant it can no longer be ignored.
A high moisture content in the subsoil combined with low temperatures and a lack of oxygen are the main culprits. These conditions transform the soft tissue of many bodies not into humus, but rather "a gray-white, paste-like, soft mass," says soil expert Rainer Horn from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany.
As time passes, the remains of the departed coagulate to form "a hard, durable substance." When knocked with a spade, the wax-like bodies sound hollow.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
I had no idea that graves were reused in Germany. Do they do this in other places as well?
I see a horror movie script in this...
Pictures?
Yes..........I think in Hong Kong you have to pay rent......or out you go!........
Stick a wick in them and light them up
I remember someone telling me this, but I didn't believe it at the time.
Adiopocere?
Forgone conclusion: Helen Thomas’ picture will be posted here.
They ought to consider cremation.... after all they know how to build industrial strength crematoriums.
France. I believe Jim Morrison’s rental is up shortly.
Yes, in Columbia (Bogata, for sure)... .I read they do it after three years! Then they get cremated to make room. This is for the very poor.
Some other places if there is no one around for a LONG time to tend your grave.
Boy, you’re good.
SNORT!
Beat me to it Slim. :)
This is bizarre.
Yup, another sure sign of Global Warming...
I think all of Europe (and I’m sure Asia) “reuses” graves—and have done so since at least medieval times. I saw a medieval Jewish graveyard in Prague, Czech Rep. that couldn’t have been much over a quarter acre, and the guide told us they estimated 100,000 were buried there—12 layers deep.
When there is only one churchyard, even after it is full...you just dig a hole and bury...
Close. Our words for the day are adipocere and saponification.
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