Superstitious Burial Practices of Europe

I thought I knew about George Washington’s death. Then I discovered the family vault where his body was kept after death. While researching Washington’s final days, I stumbled upon something shocking.

His body wasn’t simply buried in the ground. It was placed in a stone chamber on his estate. A family vault packed with rotting corpses.

This sent me down a rabbit hole that revealed one of Europe’s most embarrassing superstition. For centuries, wealthy Europeans practiced the most unsanitary burial methods imaginable. Then they had the audacity to mock other cultures as superstitious.

The Stone Box Disaster

Picture this situation clearly. Rich families built stone rooms beneath their estates. When someone died, they placed the coffin inside these chambers. Multiple bodies shared the same space. Decomposition happened in a sealed environment.

The smell must have been horrific beyond imagination. Gases from rotting flesh had nowhere to escape properly. Disease spread through stagnant air that never moved. Water seeped in during heavy rains every season. The whole system was a recipe for contamination. Yet wealthy Europeans considered this civilized behavior. They thought individual graves were beneath their social status. Only the poor got buried directly in clean soil.

Washington’s family fell into the same trap. They built what rich people were supposed to build. Status mattered more than common sense or public health. The above vault had 20 bodies in it as per this signage.

Ancient Mistakes

This superstitious practice didn’t start overnight in European society. European aristocrats copied the practice from ancient Rome and Greece. Wealthy families wanted to keep their dead together underground. They thought it showed family unity and social importance.

The Catholic Church made things significantly worse during medieval times. They encouraged elaborate burial chambers beneath their churches. Since the Middle Ages, this form of burial was essentially reserved for the privileged members of society, including monarchs, high-ranking clergy, nobility and other notable individuals.

During the Middle Ages, the use of burial vaults became more widespread, particularly among the wealthy and influential. These vaults were often located beneath churches or in family crypts, serving as a symbol of status and providing a secure resting place for generations.

Gothic cathedrals featured elaborate burial rooms for the wealthy elite. These became symbols of power and reverence across Europe. Never mind the serious health hazards they created. Prestige trumped sanitation every single time without exception.

By the Industrial Revolution, concrete made vaults cheaper to build. Mass production techniques spread this terrible practice to middle class families. More people could afford their own toxic waste containers.

Death By Cholera

Here’s where it gets truly shocking for modern readers. European cities suffered massive cholera outbreaks throughout the entire 1800s. Thousands died in London, Paris, and other major centers. Authorities scrambled desperately to find the contamination source.

The answer was literally underground beneath their feet. Contaminated burial grounds were poisoning water supplies across cities. Those fancy family vaults were leaking decomposition fluids directly into groundwater. People were drinking death without knowing it.

London experienced outbreaks in 1832 and 1849, which killed 14,137 people. In 1853–54, London’s epidemic claimed 10,739 lives. Investigators finally traced the contamination back to overcrowded burial sites.

The 1832-33 cholera epidemic claimed 4,000 to 7,000 victims in London. Paris faced similar horrors throughout this same period. The city’s ancient burial grounds had been stuffed with bodies. Disease spread through contaminated wells and water sources everywhere. The smell alone made entire neighborhoods completely unlivable.

Yet even after discovering this deadly connection, change came slowly. Rich families didn’t want to abandon their precious status symbols. They preferred to blame the poor for creating unsanitary conditions.

Superstition as science

European burial vaults represented pure death denial. Magical thinking dressed up as tradition. The vault system was literal superstition. Rich Europeans could not accept death as permanent. They built stone boxes hoping decomposition wouldn’t happen. They wanted to preserve bodies indefinitely. This is not rational burial practice. This is refusing to accept reality.

Europeans were so terrified of death’s finality that they created elaborate denial systems. Then they had the nerve to call other cultures superstitious. Egyptian mummification accepted death but tried to preserve the body. European vaults denied death was even happening. Much worse superstition.

Egyptian Wisdom vs European Arrogance

While Europeans were literally poisoning themselves with burial vaults, they mocked Egyptian mummification. British archaeologists called ancient Egyptian practices backward and completely unscientific.

This is breathtaking hypocrisy on an incredible scale. Egyptian mummification actually worked for its intended purpose. Bodies stayed preserved for thousands of years successfully. The process was clean and methodical beyond European understanding. Egyptian embalmers removed organs that cause rapid decay problems. They used natural preservatives that prevented bacterial growth effectively. The whole process was designed to work with natural forces.

Meanwhile, Europeans were stuffing rotting corpses into stone boxes. They created perfect breeding grounds for deadly disease. Their methods failed spectacularly by any reasonable measure. But colonial arrogance ran so deep that Europeans couldn’t see it. They called their disasters civilization and progress. They labeled Egyptian success as primitive ritual behavior.

Smart Solutions Worldwide

The rest of the world had figured out sensible approaches. Different cultures found practical solutions that actually worked without problems.

Many Native American tribes practiced platform burial techniques. They placed bodies on raised structures where natural decomposition happened cleanly. Birds and weather did the work Europeans tried to prevent.

Hindu cremation eliminated health hazards immediately after death. Fire reduced bodies to ash within hours completely. No contamination problems. No disease spread through communities. No toxic waste containers underground.

Buddhist sky burial in Tibet fed bodies to vultures. This completed the natural cycle without creating environmental disasters. The deceased nourished living creatures instead of poisoning water supplies.

Islamic burial (supurd-e-khak) required quick interment in simple individual graves. Bodies went directly into soil within 24 hours. Rapid decomposition prevented disease spread through proper soil interaction.

Even European peasants had better sense than their masters. Poor families buried their dead in individual graves properly. They couldn’t afford elaborate vaults or stone chambers. This accident of poverty probably saved countless lives.

Silent Historical Shame

What strikes me most is how European historians handle this. They don’t exactly hide these embarrassing facts completely. But they don’t emphasize them in standard narratives either. It’s willful ignorance disguised as scholarly discretion.

You won’t find detailed discussions of cholera’s burial connection. The vault system gets mentioned briefly as historical curiosity. The health disasters get downplayed as unfortunate accidents.

This isn’t conspiracy or deliberate cover up. It’s collective embarrassment about their civilizational claims. Europeans prefer to remember their past as advanced. Admitting centuries of deadly burial stupidity doesn’t fit.

The contrast with their treatment of other cultures remains stark. European scholars write extensively about “primitive” burial practices. They analyze every detail of non European death rituals.

But their own disastrous burial history gets glossed over completely. Family vaults become quaint historical footnotes in textbooks. Cholera outbreaks become mysteries of urban planning.

When Reality Hit Hard

Change only came when the death toll became undeniable. London’s Great Stink of 1858 made the Thames unbearable. Sewage and burial contamination had turned the river poisonous. Parliament couldn’t ignore the smell anymore during sessions.

The Metropolitan Board of Works finally banned burials within London. New cemeteries had to be built outside the city. Individual graves replaced family vaults by government mandate only.

Paris underwent similar reforms after repeated cholera disasters. Baron Haussmann’s renovation of the city included relocating burial grounds. The famous Catacombs were created by moving millions of bodies.

But these changes happened slowly and reluctantly across Europe. Wealthy families fought to preserve their burial traditions stubbornly. They didn’t want to give up symbols of status. Some private estates continued using family vaults into the 1900s. Regulations were often ignored if you had enough money. Public health took second place to private prestige.

Modern Echoes

The family vault concept never completely disappeared from wealthy society. It just got modernized with concrete and better sealing. Visit any expensive cemetery today to see this. You’ll see the same basic idea with contemporary materials.

These were usually elaborate underground burial vaults which were owned by wealthy families who were often buried together. A familiar sight in the garden cemeteries that were built in Victorian times, mausoleums are very often beautiful and elaborate works of architecture.

Rich families still build elaborate tombs for themselves today. They call it honoring the deceased with dignity. But it’s really the same status obsession historically.

The funeral industry markets these products as premium options. Advanced sealing technologies get promoted heavily to customers. Protective concrete barriers sound scientific and modern now. It’s the same vault stupidity with marketing language.

Most people don’t realize they’re buying into deadly tradition. Marketing materials don’t mention the historical health hazards ever. They focus on dignity and protection instead.

Lessons Never Learned

This whole story reveals something disturbing about European intellectual culture. They were capable of recognizing superstition in other societies. But they couldn’t see it in their own practices. The same scholars who mocked Egyptian death rituals practiced worse. They had access to better information about disease. Yet they clung to traditions that were killing people.

This pattern repeats throughout European colonial history without exception. Indigenous practices get labeled as backward superstition automatically. European alternatives get called civilized progress without question. Even when European methods are demonstrably inferior.

The burial vault disaster should have taught Europeans humility. Instead, they quietly abandoned the practice while judging other civilizations. The arrogance never ended or changed significantly.

Washington’s American Connection

George Washington’s death brings this story into American focus clearly. The Founding Fathers were supposed to represent Enlightenment rationality. Yet they practiced the same burial superstitions as aristocrats.

Washington’s family vault at Mount Vernon contained multiple generations. The same health hazards existed there too obviously. The same contamination risks threatened the local area. The same status obsession disguised as family tradition.

When they finally moved Washington’s body to proper tomb, they responded to public health concerns. The vault system had become obviously problematic by the 1830s.

But American historians don’t dwell on this aspect today. They focus on the dignity and reverence instead. The practical health problems get minimized or ignored entirely. This mirrors how European historians handle their own disasters. Embarrassing realities get downplayed in favor of flattering narratives.

Why This Matters Now

Understanding European burial superstitions matters for several important reasons. First, it reveals the dangers of letting status override sense. Wealthy Europeans chose prestige over public health for centuries.

Second, it shows how cultural arrogance blinds people completely. Europeans mocked other burial practices while practicing something worse. Their colonial mentality prevented honest self assessment entirely.

Third, it demonstrates how historical narratives get sanitized over time. Embarrassing episodes get minimized while flattering stories get emphasized. This creates distorted understanding of the past completely.

Finally, it warns against trusting traditional authority too completely. European burial vaults had backing from church and state. Yet the practice was fundamentally destructive to society.

Breaking Historical Silence

This story deserves much wider recognition in education today. Too many people grow up thinking European civilization was advanced. The burial vault disaster proves otherwise beyond doubt.

Europeans spent centuries practicing deadly superstitions while calling others primitive. They created public health crises through sheer arrogance. These facts shouldn’t be hidden or minimized anymore.

The cholera connection alone should make this mandatory learning. Thousands died because wealthy families insisted on stone boxes. That’s not ancient history but recent enough for lessons.

We need honest accounting of historical failures alongside achievements. Selective memory creates dangerous blind spots in understanding. It prevents learning from past mistakes that matter.

The European burial disaster teaches crucial lessons about humility. It shows the dangers of aristocratic privilege over sense. These lessons remain relevant in our current world.

References

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