[Max in Utah]

Hey, after you’re dead a couple thousand years, the sacredness wears off...

[Verginius Rufus]

The Mycenaean Greeks built tholos tombs (second millennium B.C.). The largest ones, near Mycenae, were the largest domed structures anywhere in the world before the Pantheon in Rome (early second century A.D.). In those tombs important people were buried, presumably royalty. The people carrying out a new burial would kick aside skeletons of people buried there earlier if all the flesh was gone from the bones.

There are places in Europe where you can see roomfuls of skulls or roomfuls of other bones--under St. Stephen's cathedral in Vienna, for example. This doesn't quite match our notions of respect for the dead.

[cubreporter]

In your book maybe. Not mine.