What Is The Real History Of Cremation?
“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” No one knows for sure the history of cremation but cremation is a custom as old as the earliest recorded history. Scholars generally agree that cremations probably began, in any measurable number, during the early Stone Age or around 3000 B.C. It is believed to have started in Europe and the Near East. There is some evidence that cremation existed in North America as much as 10,000 years ago with certain Native American Tribes. Cremation began to move into the British Isles and what is now Spain and Portugal during the Bronze Age (2500 to 1000 B.C.) Cemeteries began to be developed for cremated remains. By the time of the Roman Empire (27 B.C. to 395 A.D.) cremations were widely practiced and the cremated remains were generally stored in elaborate urns in columbarium-like buildings. But then Christ was born – “crucified, dead and buried…” “Christ was buried so I must be buried” became the accepted way of thinking, and as a result, Ear
