Desecration of graves involves intentional acts of vandalism, theft or destruction in places where humans are interred: this includes body snatching. It has long been considered taboo to desecrate or otherwise violate graves or grave markers of the deceased, and in modern times it has been prohibited by law. Desecration is defined as violating something that is sacred.[1]
One form of grave desecration is grave robbery. In Egypt many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were robbed and looted of valuables. Papyrus scrolls from 2000 BC detail accounts of looting. The accounts also spell out the punishment that thieves received. The sentence varied from the removal of the thief's ears or nose. One punishment was execution.[2]
In China the 2nd century text Lüshi Chunqiu advised mourners to plan simple burials to discourage looting.[3] Many Chinese were buried with valuables, including jade burial suits.[4] In modern China, grave robbing continues.[3]
Illegal body snatching from graves provided cadavers for sale to medical schools for dissection during anatomy demonstrations. Because of the taboo and theft of corpses the dissection of corpses was often carried out in secret.[5] Body snatching was practiced by resurrectionists in the United Kingdom until the Anatomy Act 1832. In the United States the practice fed into the myth of Night Doctors. Many cemeteries installed gates and fences.
Graves have historically been the target for vandalism desecration. In the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the Mount of Olives.[6]
In modern times people continue desecrating grave sites.[7] Occasionally the vandalism-desecration is religiously motivated. Jewish cemeteries are occasionally targets for vandalism.[8]
In some cases the desecration is racially motivated, like in the 2004 case of two white teens who desecrated the grave of James Byrd, Jr (a black man who was dragged to death) in Jasper, Texas. The teens were charged with criminal mischief after scrawling profanities on a steel plate and knocking over his grave marker.[9]
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Further information: Cemetery § Re-use of graves |
The United Kingdom Parliament passed the Burial Act 1857. Concerns arose that due to rapidly expanding cities because of the industrial revolution, burial graves were reused too quickly.[10] The offense of disturbing a burial included in the Burial Act 1857 was based on the belief that a grave was to be undisturbed for eternity.[10][11] Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 made it unlawful in England and Wales to disturb human burials without a license or on ground consecrated by the rites of the Church of England, without the permission of the church.[12]
Cemeteries may also be moved so that the land can be reused for transportation structures.[13] In some countries it is forbidden to move a cemetery. In Alberta, Canada, for instance, the Cemetery Act expressly forbids the relocation of cemeteries or the mass exhumation of marked graves for any reason whatsoever.[14]
As a form of great disrespect to the dead, a person urinates on the decedent's grave.[15] In 17th century Churchyard-Väki tradition, one was expected to proceed with quiet reverence in a cemetery. According to Väki folklore, people could be punished by "angered beings" or "fall sick" for simply urinating in a graveyard.[16]
By the end of 1949, and throughout the Jordanian rule, some Arab residents uprooted tombstones and plowed the land in the cemeteries at the Mount of Olives, and an estimated 38,000 tombstones were damaged in total. During this period, a road was paved through the cemetery, in the process destroying graves including those of famous persons.[17] In 1964, the Intercontinental Hotel was built at the summit of the mount. Graves were also demolished for parking lots and a filling station[18] and were used in latrines at a Jordanian Army barracks.[19][20][21][22] The United Nations did not condemn the Jordanian government for these actions.[23]
In January 2020, CNN reported that China appears to have been demolishing Uyghur cemeteries as part of a control campaign against Muslim minorities and Islamic beliefs within China. CNN reported that over 100 traditional Uyghur cemeteries have been destroyed. Most of these were destroyed within the last two years. In October 2020, AFP and satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance first reported the razing of Uyghur cemeteries. At least 45 of these cemeteries had been razed since 2014.[24]
In December 2023 the New York Times reported that Israeli forces razed six cemeteries in the Gaza Strip:[25]
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported bulldozing and desecration of more Gaza cemeteries than the Times did. It also reported large holes have been created in cemeteries as a result of frequent Israeli attacks, engulfing dozens of graves, and the remains of some dead bodies have been scattered or have disappeared. The cemeteries named include:
Intentional destruction of religious sites without military necessity a possible war crime.[25]
In many cases it is against the law to deface or desecrate grave sites or human remains. These include removing gravestones, leaving trash, disturbing, or tampering with a gravesite. People are also not allowed to open any repository of human remains or cover over or destroy. In many cases these are felonies.[26] For instance NY Penal Law § 145.23: Cemetery desecration involves attempts to: vandalize, spray paint, or steal from places that are used for human interment.[27]
According to United States legal case Dangerfield v. Williams, 26 App. D.C. 508 (D.C. Cir. 1906) as long as people recognize that an area serves as a graveyard it remains a sacred place, even if there are no new burials and the graves are neglected.[28]
