Among the antient Britons, both cremation and :ce ment were practise d, as druidical rites. When a dead body was interred, it was usual to bury along with it what ever was of use in this life, under the superstitious notion that the deceased would have occasion fur it in the other world. 1 1 (nce, arms and various other utensils are still discovered in old tombs. The practice of raising barrows over the bodies of the deceased, which was almost uni versal in the eat her ages of the world, lir( railed also among the Britons. Beneath these barrow s both arms and skeletons are frequently di.,covc red : (S• c Btun ow.) At what precise period the use of coffin, was introduced into this country, has not b.:en aster tinted ; but in its rudest form, the kist-vatn, or coffin composed of rough stones set edgewise at the sides and ends, appears to have been a very ancient receptacle of the dead in Britain. The great improvement of the stone coffin, by forming it of a single stone, with mallet and tool, has been ascribed to the Romans ; who appear, however, to have made use of brick coffins, or sarcophagi, in their earliest pe riods. The practice of cremation ceased upon the intro duction of Christianity: and the Britons, after the ex ample of the Romans, had recourse to interment and the use of coffins. See Gough's Sepul. Monum ; Pen nant's Tour in IVales ; Stukely's .4bury ; ./Irch (col. vol. ii.
3. In ancient times, it does net appear that any thing was determined particularly with regard to the place of burying the dead. There were graves in the town and country, upon the highways, in gardens, and on moun tains. The tombs of the king's of Judah were in Jeru salem, and in the royal gardens. Tile sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea had provided for himself, and where in he placed our Saviour's body, was in his garden ; that of Rachel was upon the highway from Jerusalem to Beth lehem. The kings of Israel had their burying places in Samaria ; Samuel and Joab were interred in their own houses ; Moses, Aaron, Eleazer, and Joshua, in moun tains ; King Saul and Deborah under trees ; Manasseh and Amon in the garden of Uzza. The sepulchres of the people of Jerusalem are said to have been in the valley of Kidron, where were likewise the burying places for foreigners. See Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, v. BURIAL.
Both the Jews and Heathens usually buried their dead without the city. By a law of the twelve tables, the Romans were prohibited from burying within the city : Hominenz mortuunz in urbe ne sepelito, neve unto. Cic.
De Leg. ii. 23. But a special privilege was sometimes granted by the senate to particular persons, that they might be buried within the walls ; as in the case of Julius Cxsar, who obtained the right of making a sepulchre for himself within the P 0711Xrill712. Other illustrious families likewise possessed the privilege of being in terred within the walls ; and the vestal virgins were al ways buried in the city. The burial places among the
Romans•were either private or public. The former were in fields or gardens, generally near the highway : hence the frequent inscriptions, Siste viator, viator, &c.
on the Via ?ppia, Aurelia Flaminia, &c. public places of interment for great men were commonly in tne Campus Manius, or Campus Esyuilinus, which were gr„Lted by a decree of tile senate ; and for poor people, with the Esquiline gate, in pits or holes dug perpen dicularly, called puticu/a. The tombs of the rico were generally built of marble, tix ground inclosed with a wall, or iron rail, and planted round with trees. Com mon sepulchres were usually built below ground, many of which still exist in Italy under the name of catacombs. See Roman ?lntiq.
The Greeks, in ge,ieral, followed the same practice of burying without the city wails. Lycurgus, however, introduced the contrary practice among the Laeadxmo Mans, with the view, it is said, of rendering the youth of Sparta familiar with the spectacle of death.
The Turks, we arc told, bury not at all within the walls of the city, excepting the great Turkish emperors, with their wives and children, and some few other of their great Bassaes, and those only in chapels by them selves built for that purpo-,e. All the rest of the Turks are buried in the fields ; some of the better sort in tombs of marble ; but tile rest with tomb-stones laid upon them, or with two great stones, one at the head, and the other at the foot of every grave. The greatest part of ti:ese are of white marble brought from the Isle of Marmora (KnoIles' Hist. of the Turks.) They arc in the habit of burying by the way-side, believing that passengers will pray for the souls of the dead. Tavernier's Tra vels.
Among the primitive Christians, burying in cities was not permitted for the first 300 years, nor in churches for many ages afterwards ; the bodies of the dead being first deposited in the church-yard, and porches and porticoes of the church. Upon the introduction of Christianity into this country, a regular mode of disposing of dead bodies took place. The people, during worship, were taught to look towards the altar, and the dead were bu ried with their faces the same way, excepting the priests, who, for a similar reason, were ordered to face the con gregation. The reason given by Gregory the Great, for the custom of burying in churches, or in places ad joining to them, was, that tie tombs of the dead might recall them to the recollection of their friends and rela tions, who might thus be led to offer up prayers for them ; and this reason was afterwards transferred into the body of the canon law. Hence also the striking and solemn address which distinguished the epitaphs of the monkish ages : Orate pro anima miserrimi peccatoris.