Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Belated Reburial

Welcome

Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.

What's at Taph?

Taphophilia Home

Thanatology Forums

Taphophile Weblinks

Taph's Article Archive

Contact Deadgirl

Donating to Taphophilia

Book Library

Deadgirl Recommends

Dig Deeper

Literature

Topics at Taphophilia

Deadgirl's Dictionary

Cemetery Photography

Industry News

Carved in Stone

A Taphophilia Thank You...

Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From
its conception and early development, DarkestWeb
was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.

Cemetery Snapshot

Announcements

Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!

Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!

Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.

Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.

Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.

West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.

Belated Reburial

Written by DeadGirl
Saturday, 01 April 2006
City workers and scientists seek to put grave error right; Skeletal remains will be returned to cemetery As the cemetery's soil slipped through his fingers, Mark Denton of the Texas Historical Commission was satisfied his group would find a final resting place soon. For Denton, who helped guide a team of city workers and scientists at City Cemetery to rebury the skeletal remains of 27 people unearthed by accident 20 years ago, it was the least he could do to help make things right. "We need to make amends for having not honored the cemetery the way we should have," Denton said. For the past two decades, the remains had been sitting in a box in a science lab at the University of Houston. On Thursday those working to lay the remains to rest said they wanted to make sure no such mistake would happen again."The one thing we don't want to do is find more bodies," said Jorge Garcia-Herreros, the archaeologist in charge of the dig. A public works team dug systematically into a small plot about 15 feet from where the remains were disturbed two decades ago. The goal was to find a vacant 12-inch by 24-inch area to rebury the remains. Their careful, measured efforts were vastly different from the tactics used in 1986 when the remains were uprooted. The bones were disturbed by workers digging a 10-by-50-foot utility trench behind a building in a fire department maintenance complex just north of downtown. It's not uncommon for new construction to be built over old, forgotten cemeteries, city officials said. The complex where the digging occurred is located on the east side of the cemetery and was built in the 1960s. The complex, officials later discovered, had been erected on the grounds of the original City Cemetery, which had been used for burials from about 1840 to 1870. The unearthing of the remains caused an outcry among some anthropologists when the Chronicle first reported it in 1986. Ken Brown, an anthropologist at the University of Houston, criticized the city for allowing construction workers to continue to dig after the discovery was made. Adding further insult to the sacred ground, Denton said several workers stole bones as souvenirs. Most of the stolen remains were recovered, he said, and will be reburied with the others. Instead of reburying the remains immediately, the bone fragments landed in a box in the lab of Brown's lab at UH. Twenty years ago, Brown said he wanted to study the bones, and later have the city rebury them. Instead, the box collected dust in the lab where he worked. After a few years, Brown said he simply forgot about them. The bones remained stashed away until Councilwoman Ada Edwards heard about their 20-year limbo. The city blames Brown for keeping the bones for the past two decades, while Brown faults the city for not reburying them at his urging in the '80s. Blame aside, Edwards said she was happy the city has returned the remains to their final resting place. "I can say to the spirit of the people's bones they represent, I'm glad we're able to give them a resting place with some dignity," she said. SOURCE: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3745057.html

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

SEO by Artio

Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh.”

Robert Bolt