Digging Up the Dead

Death is as old as life itself, and the rituals accompanying it are about as old, too. For thousands of years, cultures around the world have ritualized death as a way of understanding it. Whether it was preserving a body for eternity or disposing of it completely to set the soul free, a culture's funerary customs reveal much about how its people viewed life and death. This text provides an age-appropriate examination of death rituals from cultures both ancient and modern. Captivating sidebars, fact boxes, a graphic organizer, and engaging visuals will encourage readers to look to the past to see how we handle death today.

Crypts, tombs, and mausoleums aren't just the creepy props of a horror movie; they're the final resting places of the dead. Many are also beautifully designed monuments. This intriguing examination of some of the world's most prominent tombs includes the elaborate Taj Mahal, the mysterious Newgrange, the mammoth Great Pyramid, and the star-studded Westminster Abbey. Modern tombs and burial customs are also discussed in this thoughtful text, accompanied by vivid, striking photographs. Sidebars and fact boxes offer more-sometimes chilling-details about various tombs and burial rites.

Horror movies are filmed in Highgate Cemetery in London, England. The oldest headstones at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic, are from the 1400s. In Cairo's City of the Dead, the poorest citizens live next door to graves! While visiting these graveyards isn't for the faint of heart, readers can enjoy all the spooky spectacles through detailed descriptions and history. Full-color photographs show the different ways cultures have buried their dead, from the beauty of Zentralfriedhof in Vienna to the restrained dignity of Arlington National Cemetery. Sidebars augment the main content with haunted tales and the famous people buried there.

With the help of some chemicals and a bit of hard work, bodies can have a long life well after a person's death. Early embalming efforts in ancient Egypt were meant to preserve bodies for the afterlife. Today, we preserve bodies in a variety of ways to honor our loved ones after they're gone. With great facts and figures, readers will get an inside look at the funeral homes and other places where we preserve our dead. From organs in jars to modern embalming, this series offers full-color photographs and lots of information about the various processes that have helped preserve the dead for centuries.

Death and burial practices vary from one culture to the next, and there's some pretty unusual traditions out there. Have you ever heard of people saving the bones of their ancestors? That's what happens in ossuaries and charnel houses. Readers will find amazing photographs of charnel houses and ossuaries, including the dark passages of the Paris catacombs and the ornately decorated Sedlec Ossuary. Photographs are paired with engaging passages, sidebars, and fact facts that explain fascinating death traditions.

From the walls of the Shaanxi Province in China to the murky red waters of Ireland's peat bogs, scientists and archaeologists have found spine-chilling evidence of scary sacrifices and rituals. Throughout history, cultures have found some very creative ways of torturing their enemies and pleasing the powers that be. But some of these ghastly practices happened far more recently than we would like to think! This riveting volume offers age-appropriate insight into some of history's mysterious and gruesome practices. Scintillating sidebars and "Grave Matters" fact boxes highlight details about surprising sacrifices and eye-opening executions.