Richard III begins the Shakespeare play that bears his name by declaring, “Now is the winter of our discontent.” But for the actual king, this is the late summer of his discontent—at least if he’d rather his remains be undisturbed. As the BBC reports, a University of Leicester archaeological team has set out to find the monarch’s remains, which was buried in a Franciscan friary in the city following his defeat in battle (against the Tudors) in 1485. If human remains are found over the course of the two-week project, they will be taken in for DNA testing; if they are confirmed ... Read More
Giving Forgotten Veterans a Dignified Departure
November 10, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The first time Bob Day came across Arthur Uffman, the World War II veteran had long been cremated, his ashes forgotten on a shelf at an Arizona mortuary. For Day, who served in Vietnam, allowing the veteran’s remains to languish any longer would have been akin to abandoning a fellow soldier stricken in combat. So the point man in Arizona for the Missing in America Project set out to give Uffman a proper sendoff. In April, a hearse carried Uffman’s ashes in a golden metal urn to his final destination: a veterans’ cemetery where he and 17 other long-neglected service members, most ... Read More
Gadhafi: Another Dead Despot, Another Hidden Body
October 28, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The fear that troublesome political figures can create mayhem in death as well as life leads to creative decisions on their final resting places. The most recent example is the desert burial for Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, who has been planted in some undisclosed location by the provisional government that toppled him (with a little help from NATO). Gadhafi’s treatment after his capture, both in the quick and in death, has opened a Pandora’s box of questions. But after his rotting corpse required its less-than dignified display in a freezer to be cut short, descriptions of his secret ... Read More
Green Planting: Eco-Friendly Burials Catching On
May 14, 2009 • By • 2 Comments
Is the "death care" industry — in the United States alone an $11 billion-a-year effort supporting more than 20,000 funeral homes and around 105,000 jobs — flirting with death itself? It's an industry which every year buries millions of tons of valuable resources — wood and metal coffins, and concrete grave liners — along with embalmed bodies containing countless gallons of toxic formaldehyde. Traditional burials have long been that way, but in today's eco-conscious world, it's a system that leaves the funeral industry seeming to be increasingly out of step, complain those who ... Read More
