Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Graveyards
Crypts, Churchyards, Tombs, Catacombs, Boneyards,
Graves, Cemeteries, Mausoleums, Necropolis, Burial
Grounds, Graveyards, Ossuaries, Vaults, Burial
Chambers, Undercrofts, Sepulchers, Bone Cellars,
Eternal Resting Places or what has to be everyones favorite:
The Garden of Remembrance - Call them what you will but if you
taint, besmirch or sully the hallowed soil within you are promised...
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Hallowed Ground
QUESTIONS about moral turpitude, religious beliefs, law and all sorts of things come
into play. Do you search at all? Do you dig? How far down do you dig? Is there any establish
etiquette, protocol or rules to follow? Why is it when some people who are in fact looking for,
discover, dig up, break seals, enter, loot, remove the bodies from their coffins in an ancient tombs
or burial chambers so readily accepted by everyone? In most cases theyre given celebrity status
and even revered by the scientific and historical communities! Why are people like Lord
Canarvon and Howard Carter who discovered King Tutankhamuns Tomb held in such high
regard and given world acclaim when the average metal detector who shoves a stick in the
ground within 50 miles of Gettysburg Battle Field is hauled away in chains, thrown in jail and
fined to the point of bankruptcy?
AND SPEAKING OF BATTLES - Theres been one brewing for sometime now over
the discovery and handling of sunken ships be they treasure or otherwise. The battle persists
between treasure hunters and archeologists over how to properly handle the discovery and
unearthing of human remains. Some believe that any ship with human contents no matter how old
should be considered as a sacred tomb of those who went down with it and not be touched by
treasure hunters. They further believe that all discoveries should be gridded, mapped and
properly excavated by archeologists prior to any treasure hunting activity! Every one of us is
going to have a different opinion about this sort of thing. It seems that if a tomb or grave is over
a certain age its OK to pillage its contents but anything more recent than lets say a couple of
hundred years is sacrilege.
There DOESNT SEEMED TO BE any reason or logic to it and I dont know what
the answer is or even should be. Im Irish Catholic and to me if youre dead, youre dead and
you didnt need a new suit for the occasion. But I have never dug in any of the cemeteries Ive
run across even knowing full well that people among the living bury valuable things
around the graves of their loved ones and many people who died were buried with their
valuables. Quite often a substantial personal cache of treasure went into the grave with them.
This was a practice that dates back to our earliest origins and even before actual money or
currency existed our ancestors were buried with their most prized and valuable possessions. Its
also why grave robbing has been around just as long. Imagine how much jewelry alone has been
buried in the ground over the years only to be given back to mother earth and lost in time forever.
DIGGING OR PROBING IN CEMETERIES has serious ethical, moral and
criminal consequences and is not considered an acceptable practice even among those treasure
hunters who would murder for a Spanish Cobb and a drink of rum. As a true Irishman, theres
not much I havent done or wouldnt consider and live with the shame of some of it, but grave
robbing and working in cemeteries leaves us all lesser than proud and noble human beings
regardless of the potential treasure we may find. Theres plenty of other prosperous territory to
be searched and let those who are buried there, and even worse forgotten about...
REST IN PEACE!
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