| Being Buried Alive |
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TAPHEPHOBIA TAPHEPHOBIA:The term "taphephobia" is derived from the Greek "taphos" meaning "grave" + "phobia" from the Greek "phobos" meaning "fear" = literally, fear of the grave, or fear of being put in the grave while still alive. Fear of being buried alive is one of mans great fears of Death alongside meeting an early or untimely death or once having died being the victem of body snatching. And yet just like grave robbery it is a subject that is whispered about and tall tales are told about but most of us dont know if any of it is fact or if it is all an urban legend who's strength and endurance is simply sustained by our fears. So I decided to help bring this dark subject out into the light with a collection of a few articles on the subject. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ In the nineteenth century, one of the most prevalent fears among all people, whether rich, poor, noble, common or everything in between, was taphephobia – the fear of being buried alive (it comes from the Greek word taphos – meaning “grave” and phobos – meaning “fear”, then you just put them together). These days, while this fear probably does very much still exist (after all, it's still a pretty scary prospect to suddenly wake up inside a coffin, with six feet of dirt above you), it is nowhere near as prevalent as, say the fear of spiders (arachnophobia) or the fear of death in general (necrophobia). A New York Times article from January 19, 1999, in fact, demonstrates the fact that premature burial was indeed an issue even then, as it describes a new bill introduced in New York which would prevent premature burial: “No body shall be received unless a statement on the part of an attending physician or coroner, whether he has found the following signs of death or not, is with it: First – Permanent cessation of respiration and circulation. Second – Purple discoloration of the dependent parts of the body. Third – Appearance of blistering around a part of the skin touched with a redhot iron. Fourth – The characteristic stiffness known as rigor mortis. Fifth – Signs of decomposition” Such a bill was surely at least some comfort to those people of New York state who suffer from this not-so-irrational fear. The Cause of TaphephobiaA couple hundred years ago, things were quite a bit different, as far as the study of death was concerned. Medicine was not exactly the same as it is today. Things were very uncertain, even death. This is not so hard to believe, as even today it can be remarkably difficult to tell if a person is actually dead, and not just temporarily unconscious. When is it okay to stop giving CPR? How long does a person's heart have to stop beating before there is no longer any chance whatsoever of them waking back up? Throughout history, the tests for ensuring someone’s death have varied quite dramatically – from waiting periods before burial up to even a couple weeks to much more dramatic methods to ensure death prior to burial. Today, medical professionals can generally be quite certain of death for the most part. Medical science has done a great deal to determine exactly when fullness of death occurs – they can measure even the tiniest tremors of a heartbeat or the tiniest slivers of brain activity. They can be relatively certain that we will be good and dead before we are buried. Taphephobia Throughout HistoryDuring the nineteenth century (and every century prior to this, since the very advent of man upon the Earth), this was certainly not the case. This fact is made clear when one realizes that prominent Europeans during this time were in large numbers joining an organization known as “The Society for the Prevention of Premature Burial.” Members of this society were considerably stricken with acute cases of taphephobia – so much so that they often included death assurances in their wills. Such death clauses were quite varied and, at times, fairly ingenious and creative. Some of them required that they be beheaded before they were buried, some that their hearts be pierced with a stake (some that they be pierced several times), some that they be dismembered, or that their blood be entirely drained from their body (which means they would probably appreciate modern-day embalming techniques). There were cases of pry bars and hammers being placed inside caskets, just in case the deceased happened to wake up, or a pipe leading from the casket up to the Earth, through which the deceased could call for help if they happened to wake up. George Washington's final words were these (for he had always been known for his fear of premature burial: “Have me decently buried, but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead... Tis well.” Washington was probably right in saying this, for it was not entirely unheard of for premature burial to take place in those days. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ In today's culture, one's fears might be of becoming a victim of a car jacking or not having enough money to live on during retirement. However, during the 19th century, one of the greatest fears was of being buried alive. Before medical science could measure brain waves and before the custom of embalming became popular, it was indeed possible to be considered dead prematurely and buried alive. In small churchyards in England, the practice of digging up old coffins to reuse grave plots produced a startling discovery. Estimates range from about 2% to 1 in 50 coffins that had scratch marks on the inside, leading people to believe that the occupants had been buried alive. How could this have happened? One problem at that time was that pewter cups and plates could contain too much lead. If a food or beverage had a high acid content, this would cause the lead to leach out from the pewter. Ingesting lead caused a lengthy, unconscious state that was often mistaken for death. Tomatoes' reputation with pewter plates most probably was one reason people stopped eating them, only they thought the tomatoes were poisonous rather than the lead. Couple this with ignorance about comas and other medical problems, and it is no wonder people had a great fear of being buried alive. As a result, a great deal of care was given to determine if someone was actually dead. The ceremony known as a "wake" allowed family and friends to sit with the deceased to give them time to wake up, while at the same time gave them time to properly grieve. A reference was also found to something called a "waiting mortuary," which was started in 1791. This was a place where the deceased was kept for two weeks on zinc trenches filled with an antiseptic solution and surrounded by flowers. A system of cords and pulleys were connected to the deceased's fingers, toes, and head which caused bells to ring if there was any movement whatsoever. Numerous patents were issued for coffin escape devices. One particular design has given us several phrases that are in common use today in the English language. A bell above ground was attached to a string which ran down into the coffin and was attached to the wrist of the deceased. Someone was hired to keep watch on the bell to quickly dig up the person if the bell rang. The "dead ringer" was "saved by the bell" by someone working the "graveyard shift." The advent of embalming after the Civil War made being buried alive impossible and gave families the reassurance that their loved ones would not suffer that fate. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Through history, one of the main worries was being buried alive. We, living in the United States at this time, are fortunate not to have this worry, but this worry still exists in many parts of the world. The reason we are so fortunate is due to the fact that embalming has become a common practice in our country. It wasn't always this way and people strove to find different ways to prevent this catastrophe through history. A popular 19th century invention was Bateson's Belfry. It was designed specifically to prevent someone from being sealed up in a coffin while alive. A bell was mounted on top of the coffin with a rope that went through the coffin and was fastened to the hand of the corpse (or comatose person). If the rope was pulled ever so lightly it would ring the bell. The device became very popular. The ancient Jews had their own method for preventing this. They buried their dead, or not so dead as they thought, in a cave and would visit the body for the next three days. This assured them that the person was indeed dead. Of course we know now that three days may have not been enough time. If you were unfortunate enough to be a servant of a ancient pharaoh who died you may have been buried alive with him on purpose. In ancient Rome there was a physician named Foretus. Foretus told his colleagues not to be too hasty in pronouncing someone dead. It is said that there was a monk who lived in the 6th century who was named Oran. He had died and was dug up the next day but was alive. The monks after listening to him, felt he was a heretic and buried him again. This poor guy just couldn't win. In the middle 1800s the Oregon Trail was the gateway for wagons to get to California. Unfortunately it was a very hard trek and a disease called Cholera killed many travelers. There was no cure for Cholera and you could die in just a few hours after exhibiting symptoms. It is thought that because of the haste to get off the trail many people may have been buried while they were still alive. It is known that many were abandoned. Some of the graves were very shallow and animals such as wolves dug up the bodies. In 1934 a story was printed in The Washington Post and referred to a person named Ann Carter Lee. It seems that this person fell ill and was buried in the family vault. A week later a sexton entered the vault and heard her cry for help. There is a dispute as to whether this story is true or not. Another story is told about an artillery officer who was thrown form his horse and received a severe contusion on the head. After being treated, including trepanning and bleeding he fell into a stupor and died, but did he? He was buried quickly as the weather was very warm. After he was buried for three days, an excited visitor said that while he was sitting on the grave he could feel the earth move. The grave was dug up and the occupant of this grave sat up. Luckily for him the dirt was very porous and the grave shallow and the coffin lid was ajar so air was able to get to him. It is said that Andre Vesalius who lived in the 16th century was dissecting a body of a Spanish nobleman when the nobleman screamed and jumped up off the table and ran out of the room. This would seem to be a fate worse than death itself. In 19th century America there was a Society that became very popular, its name was "Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive". I can see why this would be popular, can you? There point was that the deceased should be left in his or her casket for several days or weeks before being buried. This was to be sure that the deceased was truly deceased. In 1858 the Duke of Wellington died but was kept in his coffin, without burial, for two months. There are many horrific cases where man's inhumanity to man has caused people to be buried alive on purpose. A case that comes to mind is a mass grave that was discovered in the village of Dachny in Chechnya. A mass grave was discovered there and it is believed that about 16 people were buried alive. Villagers in Vietnam were sometimes buried alive if the Viet Cong suspected them of consorting with the enemy. This practice goes back to ancient times. One of my favorite stories is of a Scottish lady named Majorie Halcrow Erskine. She lived in Chirnside, Scotland. She was buried in 1674. Grave robbers opened the grave to get her jewelry, but when they did, she began to groan. The robbers ran away horrified. She got up and walked home. She then proceeded to outlive her husband by over six years. Our good friend Edgar Allan Poe helped to bring about embalming just by writing his famous story, The Premature Burial. It brought to the forefront the thing that people were most scared of and prompted the exploration of ways to prevent this. Before embalming, a special type of coffin was invented that contained poison gas. When the lid was nailed the gas was released, thus making sure the person inside was dead. I wonder how many of the people nailing the lid on got gassed? One thing that no one can do anything about except to try a rescue is accidental burial. It seems that every year people are being buried alive by snow, dirt, rocks and collapsing structures. Just look at the people that were pulled out from the twin towers and the earthquake rubble in Iran. I guess this will always be a problem. Lets just hope this never happens to us. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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