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Will we eventually run out of graveyards? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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[+] 39 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The concept is that you get a spot on a graveyard permanently as a muslim, but it is custom to give back the spot when noone is alive, who remembered the deceased relative, so usually in the third or fourth generation.

    But why wouldnt a graveyard last "forever"? We have many church graveyards that can be tracked back to early medieval times, so easily a thousand years, in Germany.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    But muslims don't embalm their deceased bodies, right? They also don't use coffins, so eventually the remains will decompose with nothing remains? How long it took for unpreserved buried bodies to completely decompose?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    How long it took for unpreserved buried bodies to completely decompose?

    That is very dependent on the temperature, soil, humidity etc. E.g. a regularly wet, huminose soil at moderate temperatures will decompose anything much quicker than dry desert sand.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It's also relatively quick. Most graveyards have a hard limit at around 1 year for allowing tombs and mausoleums to be reopened because that's roughly the amount of time for a body to discompose such that it's not a nuisance when it's reopened. Reopening or exhuming a body too soon runs the risk of being a nasty experience for the gravekeepers. But 6 month to a year, you basically have only dirt and bones. Depending on how dry the environment is. Typical western embalming methods, while very efficient on the short term, like preventing decomposition during the next couple of weeks, won't delay natural decomposition after a month or so.

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