Ad sanctitatem mortuorum: tomb raiders, body snatchers and relic hunters in late antiquity

Abstract

In late antiquity there emerged new laws that sought to protect the dead through the prevention and punishment of crimes that contravened the sanctity of the body and its resting place, including the profanation of cadavers, tomb violation, and grave‐robbery. On a more personal level, individuals used epitaphs to convey their wishes to be left undisturbed after burial, and family and kin members began searching for new ways to commemorate the memory of loved ones that did not put their mortal remains at risk. At the same time, the increasing popularity of the cult of saints and martyrs put greater emphasis on the importance of relics as objects of veneration, which in turn led to elaborate strategies of acquisition, including the exhumation, transporting and dismembering of the dead. All of these developments were inspired in some degree by a growing awareness of the body as a symbol of God's eternal love for mankind. Yet paradoxically, literary and archaeological evidence confirms that grave‐robbing was a relatively widespread phenomenon during this time. The question for historians, therefore, is one of legitimacy: in what instances was the violation of tombs considered acceptable or legitimate, and by whom? In answering this, we can learn a great deal about the cultural and religious factors that underpinned the development of new laws and customs concerning the treatment of the dead.

Safeguarding the House of the Dead: Configurations of Risk and Protection in the Urban Cemetery

“…Moreover, grave looting and the trafficking of corpses was, and still is, quite common in cemeteries in Latin America, as used to be the case in other regions too. In ancient Europe, for example: ‘Relatives of the deceased, and even government officials, occasionally turned to grave‐robbing as a convenient means of raising capital during times of economic hardship’ (Lafferty, 2014: 268). Burial gifts, grave construction materials, bodies, burial niches or tracts of burial land are all illicitly traded, often to settlement residents who cannot afford to buy a plot of land, a grave or even a funeral wreath in the formal marketplace.…”