TOMB includes both the grave or sepulchre in which a person is interred, and the monument erected to preserve his memory. The word is formed from the Greek τύμϐος , tumulus, sepulchre; or, according to Menage, from the Latin tumba, which has the same signification.

In many nations it has been customary to burn the bodies of the dead, and to collect the ashes with pious care into an urn, which was deposited in a tomb or sepulchre. Among many other nations it has been the practice to lay the dead body in a tomb, without consuming it, after having wrapped it up decently, and sometimes placing it in a cofiin. The tombs of the Jews were generally hollow places hewn out of a rock. Abraham buried Sarah in a cave. Such was also the place in which the kings of Judah and Israel were interred; and such was the place in which the body of our Saviour was deposited by Joseph of Arimathea. But it is probable that the common people buried their dead in graves; for our Saviour compares the Pharisees to “graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.” Over the tombs, perhaps only of people of distinction, a stone or monument was erected, to intimate to passengers that they were burying-places, that they might not pollute themselves by touching them. With the same intention, as Dr Lightfoot informs us, they whitened them every year on the 15th of February. The Egyptians buried their dead in caves, called catacombs. The pyramids, as some think, were also employed for the same purpose. Sometimes, after embalming their dead, they placed them in niches in some magnificent apartment in their houses.

The Greeks and Romans burned their dead, and deposited their ashes in a tomb. The Greeks interred the ashes without the cities, by the sides of their highways. Sometimes, indeed, by way of particular honour, they were buried in an elevated part of the town; and the Lacedaemonians were allowed by Lycurgus to bury in the city and round their temples. But this was forbidden among the Romans by the law of the twelve tables: In urbe ne sepelito, neve urito. Valerius Publicola, Posthumus Tuber-tius, and the family of the Claudii, were however buried in the Capitol. To bury by the sides of public roads was also common, among the Romans; and hence their epitaphs frequently began with Siste viator. Highways were probably selected for two reasons; that the dead might not be offensive or injure the health of the living; and that they might supply a lesson of mortality.

As it would swell this article to too great a size to describe all the different kinds of tombs which have been used by different nations and ages, we must content ourselves with shortly describing the tombs of a few nations, and adding a few concomitant circumstances.

The tombs of the Parsees are singular. After lying a proper time in his own house for the purposes of mourning, the deceased, followed by his relations and friends, the females chanting a requiem, is deposited in a tomb of the following construction. It is a circular building, open at top, about fifty-five feet in diameter and twenty-five feet in height, filled, to within five feet of the top, excepting a well of fifteen feet diameter in the centre. The part so filled is terraced, with a slight declivity toward the well. Two circular grooves, three inches deep, are raised round the well; the first at the distance of four, the second at ten. feet from the well. Grooves of the like depth or height, and four feet distance from each other, at the outer part of the outer circle, are carried straight from the wall to the well, communicating with the circular ones, for the purpose of carrying off the water, &c. The tomb, by this means, is divided into three circles of partitions; the outer, about seven feet by four; the middle, six by three; the inner, four by two; the outer for the men, the middle for the women, the inner for the children; in which the bodies are respectively placed, wrapped loosely in a piece of cloth, and left to be devoured by the vultures; which is very soon done, as numbers of those animals are always seen hovering and watching about these charnel-houses, in expectation of their prey. The friends of the deceased, or the persons who have charge of the tomb, come at the proper time, and throw the bones into their receptacle, the well in the centre; for which purpose iron rakes and tongs are deposited in the tomb. The entrance is closed by an iron door, four feet square, on the eastern side, as high up as the terrace, to which a road is raised. Upon the wall, above the door, an additional wall is raised, to prevent people from looking into the tomb, which the Parsees are particularly careful to prevent. A Persian inscription is engraved on a stone over the door. From the bottom of the wall, subterraneous passages lead to receive the bones, and prevent the well from filling.^[1. Moor’s Narrative of the Operations of Captain Little’s Detachment, p. 384. Lund. 1974, 4to. ]

Of the ancient sepulchres found in Russia and Siberia, some are perfect tumuli, raised to an enormous height, while others are almost level with the ground. Some of them are encompassed with a square wall of large quarry-stones placed in an erect position; others are covered only with a small heap of stones, or they are tumuli adorned with stones at top. Some are walled with brick within, and vaulted over; others are no more than pits or common graves. In some the earth is excavated several fathoms deep; others, and especially those which are topped by a lofty tumulus, are only dug of a sufficient depth for covering the carcass. In many of these sepulchres, the bones of men, and frequently of horses, are found, and in a condition that renders it probable the bodies were not burnt before they were inhumed. Other bones show clearly that they have been previously burnt; because a part of them is unconsumed, and because they lie in a disordered manner, and some of them are wanting. Urns, in which other nations of antiquity have deposited the ashes of their dead, are never met with here; but sometimes what remained of the bodies after combustion, and even whole carcasses, are found wrapped up in thin plates of gold. Many dead bodies are frequently seen deposited together in one tomb; a certain indication that either a battle had been fought in the neighbourhood of the place, or that some families buried their relations in an hereditary tomb.

The Moors, like all other Mahommedans, hold it contrary to the spirit of religion to bury their dead in mosques, and to profane the temple of the Most High by the putrefaction of dead bodies. In the infancy of the church, the Christians had the like respect for their temples. The burial grounds of the Mahommedans are without the city; the emperors have their sepulchres distinct and distant from the mosque, in sanctuaries built by themselves; and their tombs are exceedingly simple. All Mahommedans inter the dead at the hour set apart for prayer. The defunct is not kept in the house, except he expires after sunset; but the body is transported to the mosque, whither it is carried by those who are going to prayer. Each, from a spirit of devotion, is desirous to carry in his turn. The Moors sing at their burial service; which usage they have perhaps imitated after the Christians of Spain. They have no particular colour appropriated to mourning. Women regularly go on the [7:21:325]Friday to weep over and pray at the sepulchres of the dead, whose memory they hold dear.