Cemetery stories, or Why are graves dug 2 meters deep?

If we have someone's death familiarly say "played in the box", then the exact Anglo—Saxons will express themselves specifically even in jokes - "went 6 feet down." This is approximately 2 meters, graves of this depth are dug in most countries of the world. Do you want to know why?

The European tradition of burying at a depth of 2 meters dates back to the XVII century. In 1655, when the plague epidemic was raging in England, the mayor of London issued a decree that all the dead should be buried in the ground to a depth of at least 6 feet. According to the mayor, it was a two-meter layer of earth that could protect the living from the infection spread by corpses.

Before that, no one had thought about how deep the grave should be. If there were no special instructions in the will of the deceased, relatives ordered a pit for the gravediggers at their discretion. Thus, the dead body could be three meters below ground level or even be sprinkled with a half-meter layer of clay and stones.

Often graves were dug up by wild dogs or foxes, the ground was washed away by water or blown by winds — and the dead ended up on the surface. This was especially true for cemeteries in poor areas of European cities, where many were buried even without a coffin.

Even in the not too enlightened XVII century, the way to protect oneself from the plague by burying the dead 2 meters deep was perceived with skepticism. Some citizens were sure that it was all about God's wrath, while others understood that the disease was spread by rodents. But do not argue with such a major official as the mayor. So this cemetery standard took root.

In the USA, things are different. Firstly, the requirements for the depth of graves differ in different states. The average American is buried at a depth of 180 inches, which is approximately 4.5 meters. Secondly, in large American megacities, only celebrities or very poor people can afford a grave in cemeteries now.

The lot of most citizens in the United States is cremation and a place in the columbarium or in an urn on the shelf of children or grandchildren. Or, alternatively, a place in a multi-storey grave, where members of one family are buried in tiers, one above the other. The depth of such a burial can exceed 5 meters, and several generations are placed in it.

Affect the depth of burial and geological conditions. For example, in swampy New Orleans, digging a grave deeper than 2 meters is pointless, since the coffin will have to be lowered into the water. The proximity of groundwater creates a risk of "pushing" the coffin to the surface.

In countries where Christianity is professed, the requirements for the depth of burial are particularly strict. This is due to the church canons, which differ from one denomination to another, but are approximately similar in the funeral business. It is known that a Christian should be buried on consecrated ground. For some reason, it is believed that only the top 3 meters of soil can be consecrated, no more. Therefore, a parishioner who is too deeply buried, even at the walls of the temple, may find himself outside the jurisdiction of his church. Of course, this cannot be allowed, so the optimal depth is 2 meters.

Suicides, actors and criminals could be buried both behind the fence of the church cemetery and within it. In order to observe decency and not to desecrate the church ground with the mortal body of a sinner, it was enough to bury him deeper, out of the reach of consecration.

But this is from the point of view of religion. And what does official science say about this? If you look at the issue in detail, it becomes clear that the depth of 2 meters also fits well into purely practical considerations. What requirements should the grave meet?

First of all, the soil layer above the body should reliably isolate the outside world from decomposing flesh and some unpleasant phenomena associated with rotting: the spread of odor, bacteria and fungi. In addition, the body demands respect for itself, so the depth of the grave should make the dead inaccessible to birds, animals and, of course, vandals.

The grave must be protected from the elements — floods, landslides, earthquakes, weathering. Two meters is a sufficient depth in order to be safe from all kinds of disasters threatening from the outside. At the same time, groundwater, as a rule, lies below this depth and cannot damage the burial from the inside.

In Russia , the English manner of burying at a depth of 6 feet took root thanks to Peter I. The tsar-reformer tried to bring the ancient Rus to the European level and, among other things, imposed standards on everything that his monarch's hand could reach. In 1723, Peter Alekseevich ordered a special decree to bury the dead at a depth of 3 yards, that is, a little deeper than 2 meters.

Under Peter and his immediate heirs, the norm was observed, but then, with the sloppiness characteristic of our countrymen, it was abandoned and for a while funerary anarchy came again. Neglect of sanitary standards caused several serious epidemics of plague and cholera, after which Emperor Alexander I ordered the introduction of punishment for "funeral crimes", that is, for violating the norms of burial of the dead.

With the depth of the graves, more or less order was brought, but then another problem became urgent. Already in the XVIII century, some cities have grown so much that there were not enough places for cemeteries. Often the problem was solved by taking out churchyards outside the city, but this is on a global scale. At the level of the layman, the problem was solved in the same way as in some places now - with the help of a bribe. For a certain bribe, cemetery officials gave the go-ahead for new burials in old graves.

Relative order in funeral affairs was brought only at the end of the XIX century — clear instructions on burial methods appeared, as well as special services that monitor their implementation. Today at In the Russian Federation, the arrangement of cemeteries is stipulated in federal laws and regulatory documentation.

Modern requirements, in addition to the depth of burials, regulate many parameters, including the location of cemeteries. According to the current standards, an area is allocated for the cemetery that is not suitable for the placement of farmland or capital construction.

An important point is the depth of groundwater. It is unacceptable that burials come into contact with underground streams capable of spreading decomposition products over a large area. If the groundwater lies at a depth close to 2 meters, burial at this place is prohibited. In order not to make a mistake, it is customary to conduct geological exploration on the areas allocated for cemeteries.

The depth of the grave is now determined not by the royal decree or the recommendations of the priest, but by the generally accepted GOST R 54611-2011 "Funeral services. General requirements". The second important document can be called the federal law "On Burial and funeral business". All cases of burial that run counter to these documents are considered illegal, and persons related to them bear administrative and sometimes criminal responsibility.

The norms provide that the mark of the bottom of the grave should be at least 0.5 m higher than the standing water mark. At the same time, the distance from the ground surface to the coffin lid should be at least 1.5 m. The recommended depth of the grave is 2-2.5 m, and the height of the burial mound is from 0.3 to 0.5 m.