What kind of "Grave Goods" will future anthropologists/archeologists find in our present day cemeteries?
Asked by
rojo (
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August 14th, 2014
Yesterday evening I was reading articles on various digs and was struck by some of the artifacts that are found in old grave sites; things like thumb rings that were associated with archers, pottery both personal and ceremonial, tools or weaponry of the trade and, of course, jewelry of all kinds. These items are often personal items and many times they use these goods to assist in determining the social status, sex and age of the burial.
What kind of things are people buried with? Is it more common to bury someone in their finest clothes bought for the occasion or that they already owned? What about burial in their favorite clothes even if they are not dressy? How common is it to place personal items into coffins prior to burial at this time? What kind of things are placed in coffins these days? Have you done so yourself?
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14 Answers
Watches and rings, maybe, an occasional framed photo. That’s about it.
Ancient beliefs where people were buried with a lot of good (think Egypt) had an idea that one would need the goods in the afterworld.
Cheesy import stuff from TJ Maxx. lol
I doubt anyone will be trying to dig anybody up in 250 years or less. To many other problems to worry about and the graves in question would still be too fresh to be digging up. Why 250 years or less? Because that is the maximum amount of years humanity has left, if lucky. Anyone digging anything up would find more valuable/interesting stuff at the sites of our landfills
Selfies on their mobiles.
I’ve just thought of a good way to screw with future anthropologists, we bury everyone in the cheesy fashions they have at the Marts, Wal and K. They’ll think it was a massive suicide outbreak.
My nephew was about 4 when my mother died. She had bought him a little plastic green alien figurine he really wanted at some novelty store when she visited them once in Arizona. She made a fuss about the alien saying she liked it and she believed they really were ‘out there’. My mom had such a great sense of fun and knew how to light a child’s imagination. It made a deep impression on him. He put it in her casket for her to be buried with.
Bill Clinton buried with Monica Lewinsky’s head in his groin.
Mel Gibson buried with a gay jewish policeman.
George Bush Snr buried with a zombie, aka Barbara.
@cazzie my father was an avid stamp collector. He used to sent letters to many family members with way over the postage on them because he wanted postmarked stamps as well as unused ones. I used to collect them until I had a pile and take them to him whenever we visited.
When he died I had an envelope full of them that I did not get the opportunity to give him. I put them in the coffin. It was all I had.
My younger sister had a collection of “breakable animals” while she was growing up. She especially loved dolphins. For some idiotic reason (you have to know my sister~she had problems) she declined to come to Mom’s funeral. My son came upon a small, glass dolphin and put in in Mom’s niche in the wall (she was cremated) on behalf of my absent sister. I thought that was so amazingly thoughtful of him. He was only about 17 at the time.
Here in the UK a lot of people are buried with, or wearing, their favourite team’s football shirt. I doubt they would survive though.
They will find a lot of flag fragments from all the Veterans. Curious leather aprons from the Masons. Different jewelery. A Lot more bodies that had been vivisected then reassembled due to the number of autopsies. Then, probably the methods of burial, Heavy ass box in a cement vault.
I’ve left a lock of my hair, fabric and a book. None of which would survive. I think I prefer it that way.
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