Query about mass graves

[Falada]

Hi, guys. I'm new to the forums. I have a rather obscure question, and a friend of mine directed me to this board on the suspicion that you might have an obscure answer.

So, I have a world where impoverished city people are generally buried in mass graves. My question is, historically, looking into a mass grave that is already partly filled, what would one see? Do they toss any sort of preservatives (chalk? salt? air freshener?) on top of the corpses? Is there a layer of dirt? How does the grave look to someone looking down into it?

Thanks in advance.

-Amanda

[alleycat]

Mass graves are generally used when a numbers of people are buried at the same time. I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but instead some sort of crowded "potter's field" -- which is typically where poor people of a city are buried. Some of the American Indians buried their dead in mounds, a sort of mass grave. It actually sounds like you're thinking of some sort of grave site when multiple bodies continue to be buried over time. In that case, one section of the gravesite is covered by the new dirt that is dug for the newer graves. This could go on for as long as there's room.

If you want to do a little more research, watch any film of the Holocaust, or after liberation where bodies had to be buried quickly. It's not a very pleasant sight however.

[zornhau]

The bones might be subsequently dug up and placed in an ossuary. Perhaps they shortcut this by placing the dead on top of towers, for the birds.

[arrowqueen]

In the plague pits, they threw down lime to destroy the bodies more quickly.

[Puma]

Falada, It sounds like you're talking about a potter's field rather than a mass grave (such as was used during the plague epidemics, etc.) Could you give us a little more information on your subject?

Alleycat, the Moundbuilders mounds were no more mass graves than current cemeteries. Puma

[PattiTheWicked]

My husband's cousin is one of the forensic anthropologists who has been working on excavating the mass graves in Iraq, dating from the era of Saddam Hussein.

A mass grave is generally filled up and covered all at once -- think bulldozers here. If it's a place where poor people are buried as they die -- unless you have large numbers dying at once, such as in an epidemic or war -- then I would call describe it more as a potter's field than a mass grave.

[Popeyesays]

Hi, guys. I'm new to the forums. I have a rather obscure question, and a friend of mine directed me to this board on the suspicion that you might have an obscure answer.

So, I have a world where impoverished city people are generally buried in mass graves. My question is, historically, looking into a mass grave that is already partly filled, what would one see? Do they toss any sort of preservatives (chalk? salt? air freshener?) on top of the corpses? Is there a layer of dirt? How does the grave look to someone looking down into it?

Thanks in advance.

-Amanda

The Nazi's discovered real problems with mass graves. At the Aktion Reinharrdt Camps (Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec) they found it necessary to exhume the bodies and burn them before covering the trenches up again.

There were no crematoria facilities at these camps, so the burning was done in open pits.

The bodies were polluting the groundwater for one thing, and being exhumed by erosion.

At Belzec they have done some archeological surveys, using bore holes and found some gravesites the camp guards must have forgotten about. They also discovered mass graves where the victims were shot rather than gassed with carbon monoxide. These appear to have been the sick, frail and very old who could not make it under their own power to the chambers.

Regards,
Scott

[Falada]

The quick lime is what I was trying to get at. I vaguely remembered an image of a grave with bodies in it that looked as if it had dust sprinkled on it. But, my, your other replies are fascinating (I particularly like the leaving a corpse on a tower for birds to eat) and grim. Those pictures are haunting. Thank you all very much.

To explain why I'm asking, the situation in my novel is that the cemetary is nearby a fairly poor, crowded city, and there's no rush to bury the corpses and to expend effort digging a new hole until the old one is filled. So the grave might stay open a day or two before dirt is piled on. It's that kind of place. So I think it's a mass grave more than a potter's field. My main character's relation is being buried there, and he thus has the occasion to look down into the grave.

[stumpfoot]

In Cork (Ireland) during the potato faimne they used quick lime or sawdust. Also sometimes the pits would be so shallow it wouldnt take much to exhume the bodies, such as a dog digging or a little rain to wash away the top soil.