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Cremation The History of Direct Crematon
Although it is a common belief that the first cremation funerals were performed in the Middle East and Europe around 3000 BC, there is evidence that the practice of cremating human bodies actually started very much earlier. The cremains of the Mungo Lady were found in Lake Mungo, Australia in the year 1969, and it clearly showed that human beings had started burning up the bodies of their departed loved ones some 20,000 years ago. However, the discovery of Mungo Lady was too singular for historians to ascertain that cremation was actually widely practiced among the early inhabitants of Australia. On the other hand, elaborately decorated pottery cremation urns that were found in Russia showed that the Slavic population had been quite advanced in the practice of cremation around the time of the Stone Age. Later on, from around 2500 BC to 1000 BC, the people in the British Isles started to embrace cremation, and the practice spread to other European countries, such as Hungary and Italy. Cremation was introduced in Greece around 1000 BC. During the time of Homer, around 800 BC, the country was ravaged by war, and cremation became a most convenient way to dispose of the bodies of slain soldiers. After the Greeks, the Romans were the next major civilization to practice cremation. Cremation became so popular among the Romans that the government issued a decree to prohibit the practice within the limits of the city. The Romans continued to cremate the bodies of their deceased loved ones until the end of the Roman Empire, using finely-crafted urns to store the cremated remains of their departed loved ones and keeping them in buildings with columbarium niches. Although cremation was widely practiced during the time of the Roman Empire, it was regarded as a paganistic ritual by the Christians and Jews. When the Christianization of Europe came about around 400 BC, people throughout the continent were not allowed to cremate the bodies of their deceased loved ones. Instead, burial became the only option for them, and they did not practice cremation for the next 1,500 years, except for times when wars or plagues broke out. The birth of modern cremation took place when Brunetti, a professor from Italy, exhibited his model of a cremation chamber in Vienna in the year 1873. One of the people who saw the model was Sir Henry Thompson, surgeon to Queen Victoria. Thompson was so impressed with Brunetti’s model that he started the Cremation Society of England the following year. In 1878, the first crematory in England was established in the town of Woking. The practice of cremation in the United States officially started in 1876 when Dr. Julius LeMoyne set up the country’s first crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania. Within the next decade or two, crematories were being opened in major cities around the country, including Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Buffalo, and Cincinnati. The Cremation Association of America was established by Dr. Hugo Erichsen in 1913, but it changed its name to the Cremation Association of North America in 1975. By 2000, the number of crematories in the United States had increased to more than 1,500, and approximately 600,000 cremations were performed in that year alone.