Cemeteries in T2K

[kalos72]

So as I look over my Google satalte map of my campaign area, I see several unmarked LARGE tracts of land in the middle of Queens and Brooklyn. So I wonder, what are they.

It looks like they are cemeteries, so I wonder, what does the current population in T2k think about tearing up a graveyard to plant crops?

I thought maybe, just to remain civil, they could make a list of all the people buried there and then create a monument somewhere for people to visit them later if they want.

[Mohoender]

Nice idea.

I don't know how it would happen in NYC, however, I know what happened in France back during the revolution. People simply didn't care and did what they had to do. In that case it was taking stone out of the cemetery to build houses.

However, among the crowd a number of isolated people kept track of what was done to the remains and that helped later when someone hoped to find out about them. Later, a cemetery's name was eventually given to a new building that was made on the spot. That's how you find today an Innocents square which stands right on the spot of the former innocents cemetery (the cemetery where unbaptised children were buried).

As a result, elsewhere in US, long after T2K, you could find an Arlington Square where that cemetery was located (just an exemple).

Count more on individual people to show that kind of respect. In group, humans tend to be stupid and beasty.

[jester]

Funny, I was thinking something similiar when in the "Twilight State of Mind." However, I am also thinking without mechanization alot of the cemetaries could and would be farmed by HAND since fuel to run modern mechanized farm equipment would be rare at best.

And there has been a big push in cemetaries here in the US to eliminate the monuments and head stones, now modern ones have flat stones that are flat in the ground at ground level. This is made for ease of maintenance and to reduce the indicence of vanadalism. An example, the Holly Cross Cemetary in Down Town L.A. is one such and it has been for about 50 or 60 years. And the same goes for "national cemetaries." Only the older ones pre WWII have upright headstones, most others now have headstones that are slat and level with the ground.

As for modern burrials in the post T2K world, it all depends. A community where the dead are known, they may continue to use the community cemetary, or even set one up in the community. This could be done in an area where a section of land is not suited for farming. I could also see a return to crypts or vaults, using basements, sewers and underground garages or caves and abandoned mines. I can also see people in or on waterways using bodies of water to burry them at sea.

If the people are utterly callous or mass graves especialy for people they do not know, they could make mass graves,

A mass body dump at sea. Toss them all on a barge in a sack with a large rock and over they do. All tossed in a pit or hole and burried <again see a large cellar, cave, tunnel or underground garage> or possibly even a burrial mount, burrying bodies in the plentiful ruble that was once the local city.

I personaly am thinking that for mass graves of strangers they would just without ceremony or any attempt at dignity just stuff them in a preexisting hole like cellar or such and then block it off.

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

Later, a cemetery's name was eventually given to a new building that was made on the spot. That's how you find today an Innocents square which stands right on the spot of the former innocents cemetery (the cemetery where unbaptised children were buried).

Now this seems like a dark inspiration to a MERC mission - involving slightly paranormal occurences he he....muahahahah.......REDRUM REDRUM ....

[Matt Wiser]

One may expect that in a cantonment or small to medium sized village/town, they will either establish a cemetery or continue to use the existing one. However, who gets buried there is another question altogether: soldiers and camp followers would be buried in the garrison's cemetery, but enemy KIA would simply have a mass grave dug, bodies tossed in, a brief ceremony (if one's held at all), and then it's covered up. A town hit by a marauder attack and managed to repulse it would have the townspeople buried in the local cemetery or church graveyard, while the dead marauders would simply get a mass grave-dug by any marauder prisoners-before they are shot or hung and join their buddies six feet under.

[Legbreaker]

Of course all the above posts presume there is anyone around with the ability or will to bury the dead....

[jester]

Well, dead bodies tend to be unsightly and smell kinda funky after a bit.

I can see them being tossed in rivers, stuffed down a manhole cover into the sewer, out of sight and well they stink anyways. Or tossed in sinkholes and gulleys just to be rid of them.

Another option, put them in a building and either blow it up or burn it.


Also, another reason I went on in my initial reply on modern cemetaries that do not have above ground markers. These can be turned into colutvated fields if you aren't using machinery that digs into the ground. Although, the coffins are well deep, its the headstones in the earth that would damage any machinery, so as long as it is set to stay above the ground you could even use assorted farm machninery if its not the massive machinery used on the mega farms we have today.

[kato13]

Most cemerties in Chicago have what I would call minimum defenses. 8-12 foot walls are common for most in the city. Tall spiked fences are the norm in the suburbs. This is an additional plus in making a defendable farm.

[kalos72]

Agreed Kato. I would think most people/governments wouldn't think twice about planting crops in a cemetery.

[Marc]

The respect towards any prewar cemetery would be a luxury in many communities. Nobody would worry about those who are yet buried while struggling to survive. So, some cemeteries would be left abandoned if their land is not useful. And many others would be used for whatever needed for the survivors. I find the explanation of Mo totally plausible. A few ones, with more hope and nostalgia than common sense, could have initiatives like the described by Mo. This kind of people always exists. And surely the rest of the world would see them as if they were in the edge of insanity, with and atrophied sense of the survival, more worried for the past and the future that for the survival. With luck, if somebody takes care of them and keep them alive, their legacy will help for the next generation after the war.

I don’t think that any of the graveyards near home would be of any use in the Twilight world. Our land is difficult and broken and our cemeteries are more limited in extension and don’t tend to occupy as much terrain as I see in some American films. The most part of the tombs are in the walls, as niches (thanks online dictionary ). And of course we have the family vaults, for the more wealthy.

My grandfather explained me that during the terrible winter battle in Teruel, in the Spanish Civil War, he and other republican soldiers slept in niches, the only shelter they were able to found. So, I suppose that cemeteries with niches and vaults at the outskirts of some towns would be used as provisional shelters and even for permanent residence of some marginal communities. The high walls and limited access points, obligatory in a cemetery with niches, would provide a good sense of protection against marauders.