{{Short description|Act of vandalism to dishonour the dead}} [[File:02021 0313 Desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Bielsko-Biała, June 2021.jpg|thumb|Desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Bielsko-Biała, Poland in June 2021, an example of antisemitism]] The '''desecration of graves''' involves intentional acts of vandalism, theft, or destruction in places where humans are interred, such as body snatching or grave robbing. It has long been considered taboo to desecrate or otherwise violate graves or grave markers of the deceased, and in modern times it has been prohibited by law. Desecration is defined as violating something that is sacred.<ref name="dict"/>
==History== ===Theft=== One form of grave desecration is grave robbery. In Egypt many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were robbed and looted of valuables. Papyrus scrolls from 2000 BC detail accounts of looting. The accounts also spell out the punishment that thieves received. The sentence varied from the removal of the thief's ears or nose. One punishment was execution.<ref name="minutes"/>
The 3rd century Chinese text ''Lüshi Chunqiu'' advised mourners to plan simple burials to discourage looting.<ref name=Qin/> Many Chinese were buried with valuables, including jade burial suits.<ref name=China/> In modern China, grave robbing continues.<ref name=Qin/>
===Body snatching=== Illegal body snatching from graves provided cadavers for sale to medical schools for dissection during anatomy demonstrations. Because of the taboo and theft of corpses the dissection of corpses was often carried out in secret.<ref name="Nat"/> Body snatching was practiced by resurrectionists in the United Kingdom until the Anatomy Act 1832. In the United States the practice fed into the myth of Night Doctors. Many cemeteries installed gates and fences.
===Vandalism===
Graves have historically been the target for vandalism desecration. In the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the Mount of Olives.<ref name="Har-El2004"/>
In modern times people continue desecrating grave sites.<ref name="ap"/> Occasionally the vandalism-desecration is religiously motivated. Jewish cemeteries are occasionally targets for vandalism.<ref name="Jpost"/>
In some cases the desecration is racially motivated, like in the 2004 case of two white teens who desecrated the grave of James Byrd, Jr (a black man who was dragged to death) in Jasper, Texas. The teens were charged with criminal mischief after scrawling profanities on a steel plate and knocking over his grave marker.<ref name="Chron"/>
===Grave reuse=== {{further|Cemetery#Re-use of graves}} The United Kingdom Parliament passed the Burial Act 1857. Concerns arose that due to rapidly expanding cities because of the industrial revolution, burial graves were reused too quickly.<ref name=":2"/> The offense of disturbing a burial included in the Burial Act 1857 was based on the belief that a grave was to be undisturbed for eternity.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1"/> Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 made it unlawful in England and Wales to disturb human burials without a license or on ground consecrated by the rites of the Church of England, without the permission of the church.<ref name=":0"/>
===Cemetery relocation=== Cemeteries may also be moved so that the land can be reused for transportation structures.<ref name="NPR"/> In some countries it is forbidden to move a cemetery. In Alberta, Canada, for instance, the ''Cemetery Act'' expressly forbids the relocation of cemeteries or the mass exhumation of marked graves for any reason whatsoever.<ref name="alberta"/>
===Urinating on someone's grave=== As a form of great disrespect to the dead, a person urinates on the decedent's grave.<ref name="PFT"/> In 17th century Churchyard-Väki tradition, one was expected to proceed with quiet reverence in a cemetery. According to Väki folklore, people could be punished by "angered beings" or "fall sick" for simply urinating in a graveyard.<ref name="Pocs"/>
===Razing of cemeteries===
==== Mount of Olives in Jerusalem ==== By the end of 1949, and throughout the Jordanian rule, some Arab residents uprooted tombstones and plowed the land in the cemeteries at the Mount of Olives, and an estimated 38,000 tombstones were damaged in total. During this period, a road was paved through the cemetery, in the process destroying graves including those of famous persons. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5okHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT152 |title=Between Cultural Diversity and Common Heritage: Legal and Religious Perspectives on the Sacred Places of the Mediterranean |last1=Ferrari |first1=Silvio |last2=Benzo |first2=Andrea |date=2016-04-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317175025 |language=en}}</ref> In 1964, the Intercontinental Hotel was built at the summit of the mount. Graves were also demolished for parking lots and a filling station<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bronner |first1=Ethan |last2=Kershner |first2=Isabel |date=2009-05-10 |title=Parks Fortify Israel's Claim to Jerusalem |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/world/middleeast/10jerusalem.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&em |access-date=2010-03-27 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> and were used in latrines at a Jordanian Army barracks.<ref>{{cite book |last=Alon |first=Amos |author-link=Amos Elon |url=https://archive.org/details/jerusalembattleg0000elon/page/75 |title=Jerusalem: Battlegrounds of Memory |publisher=Kodansha Int'l |year=1995 |isbn=1-56836-099-1 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/jerusalembattleg0000elon/page/75 75] |quote=After 1967, it was discovered that tombstones had been removed from the ancient cemetery to pave the latrines of a nearby Jordanian army barrack.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Meron Benvenisti |url=https://archive.org/details/cityofstonehidde00benvrich |title=City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-520-91868-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cityofstonehidde00benvrich/page/228 228] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>Har-El, Menashe. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z2cFY9iGqgC&pg=PA126 Golden Jerusalem], Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 2004, p. 126. {{ISBN|965-229-254-0}}. "The majority (50,000 of the 70,000) was desecrated by the Arabs during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule in eastern Jerusalem."</ref><ref>Tessler, Mark A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3kbU4BIAcrQC&pg=PA329 A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict], Indiana University Press, 1994. p. 329. {{ISBN|0-253-20873-4}}.</ref>
==== Razing of Uyghur cemeteries by Chinese officials ==== In January 2020, CNN reported that China appears to have been demolishing Uyghur cemeteries as part of a control campaign against Muslim minorities and Islamic beliefs within China. CNN reported that over 100 traditional Uyghur cemeteries have been destroyed. Most of these were destroyed within the last two years. In October 2020, AFP and satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance first reported the razing of Uyghur cemeteries. At least 45 of these cemeteries had been razed since 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rivers |first=Matt |date=2020-01-02 |title=More than 100 Uyghur graveyards demolished by Chinese authorities |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/asia/xinjiang-uyghur-graveyards-china-intl-hnk/index.html |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> [[File:Vandalized grave.jpg|thumb|A grave in Israel with the Anti-Arab slogan "Death to Arabs" spray-painted on it in Hebrew.]]
====Israeli razing of cemeteries in the Gaza Strip==== {{Main|Israeli razing of cemeteries and necroviolence against Palestinians}} In December 2023 the ''New York Times'' reported that Israeli forces razed six cemeteries in the Gaza Strip including in Shajaiye, Sheikh Ijlin, and Beit Lahia.<ref name="israel-razes-cemeteries">{{cite news |last1=Koettl |first1=Christoph |last2=Triebert |first2=Christiaan |title=Satellite Imagery and Video Shows Some Gazan Cemeteries Razed by Israeli Forces |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/world/middleeast/gaza-cemeteries-damage-israel.html |access-date=16 January 2024 |work=New York Times|date=14 December 2023 }}</ref> Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported bulldozing and desecration of more Gaza cemeteries than the ''Times'' did. It also reported large holes have been created in cemeteries as a result of frequent Israeli attacks, engulfing dozens of graves, and the remains of some dead bodies have been scattered or have disappeared. The cemeteries included Sheikh Shaaban Cemetery in Palestine Square, Gaza City (17-20 December, which included trampling of corpses), a cemetery ca. 1.7 km east of central Khan Yunis, and St. Porphyrius Church Cemetery in Gaza City. Intentional destruction of religious sites without military necessity is a possible war crime.<ref name="israel-razes-cemeteries" /> The IDF has claimed that it has dug up graves to search for the bodies of hostages, but none were found.<ref>{{Cite web |title=IDF indicates it dug up graves in Gaza to search for hostages' bodies |website=The Times of Israel |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-indicates-it-dug-up-graves-in-gaza-to-search-for-hostages-bodies/}}</ref>
==== Razing of cemeteries of the members of Assad family ==== On 11 December 2024, Syrian rebel fighters destroyed the tomb of late president Hafez al-Assad, father of the ousted president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in the family's hometown in Qardaha, Latakia Governorate, Syria. Viral videos verified by the BBC showed armed men chanting as they walked around the burning mausoleum and desecrated the graves of Hafez and his eldest son, Bassel al-Assad.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Syria rebels burn tomb of Bashar al-Assad's father | website=British Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wq01wde44o/}}</ref> Videos of armed men burning Assad's grave and urinating on it were published online. On 28 April 2025, videos and photos on social media showed his grave being exhumed by unidentified individuals. His remains were reportedly transferred to an unknown location.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025 |title=Grave of ex-Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad exhumed in Qardaha |url=https://www.newarab.com/news/grave-ex-syrian-dictator-hafez-al-assad-exhumed-qardaha |website=The New Arab}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Al Barghouth |first=Ali |date=2025-04-28 |title=Assad's father's remains were removed from the grave and taken away |url=https://artsakh.news/en/news/323290 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=ARTSAKH.news |language=en}}</ref>
==Law== In many cases it is against the law to deface or desecrate grave sites or human remains. These include removing gravestones, leaving trash, disturbing, or tampering with a gravesite. People are also not allowed to open any repository of human remains or cover over or destroy. In many cases these are felonies.<ref name="Code"/> For instance NY Penal Law § 145.23: Cemetery desecration involves attempts to: vandalize, spray paint, or steal from places that are used for human interment.<ref name="NY"/>
According to United States legal case ''Dangerfield v. Williams'', 26 App. D.C. 508 (D.C. Cir. 1906) as long as people recognize that an area serves as a graveyard it remains a sacred place, even if there are no new burials and the graves are neglected.<ref name="Legal"/>
==See also== * List of ways people dishonor the dead
==References== <references> <ref name="Legal">{{cite web |title=Dangerfield v. Williams |url=https://calculators.law/caselaw/decisions/xEp3Y4nEB8X0/dangerfield-v-williams |website=calculators |publisher=Legal Calculators |access-date=8 December 2021 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208003053/https://calculators.law/caselaw/decisions/xEp3Y4nEB8X0/dangerfield-v-williams |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="NY">{{cite web |title=New York Consolidated Laws, Penal Law – PEN § 145.23 Cemetery desecration in the first degree |url=https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/penal-law/pen-sect-145-23.html |website=Codes Find Law |publisher=Thomson Reuters |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207221337/https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/penal-law/pen-sect-145-23.html |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="Code">{{cite web |title=Chapter 92: Cemeteries |url=https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/stoneville/latest/stoneville_nc/0-0-0-3050 |website=Code Library |publisher=American Legal Publishing |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=9 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209195409/https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/stoneville/latest/stoneville_nc/0-0-0-3050 |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="Pocs">{{cite book |last1=Pocs |first1=Eva |title=Body, soul, spirits and supernatural communication |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |location=Newcastle upon Tyne, UK |isbn=978-1527522312 |pages=180–181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0TaEDwAAQBAJ&dq=urinating+on+a+grave&pg=PA181 |access-date=9 January 2022 |archive-date=26 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226145949/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Body_Soul_Spirits_and_Supernatural_Commu/0TaEDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=urinating+on+a+grave&pg=PA181&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="dict">{{cite web |title=desecrate |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desecrate |website=Merriam Webster's |publisher=Merriam Webster's Unabridged Dictionary |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208002639/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desecrate |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="PFT">{{cite news |last1=Gantt |first1=Darin |title=Modell family wants to press charges against grave urinator |url=https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/24/modell-family-wants-to-press-charges-against-grave-urinator/ |access-date=6 December 2021 |publisher=Pro football Talk |date=24 July 2014 |archive-date=6 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206165610/https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/24/modell-family-wants-to-press-charges-against-grave-urinator/ |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="minutes">{{cite book |title=Tutankhamun : Egypt's Boy Pharaoh |date=2015 |publisher=50 Minutes |location=Bruxelles, Belgique |isbn=978-2808007382 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERlLDwAAQBAJ&dq=valley+of+the+kings+tombs+looted&pg=PT13 |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=26 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226145945/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tutankhamun/ERlLDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=valley+of+the+kings+tombs+looted&pg=PT13&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="alberta">{{Cite web |url=http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1240.cfm |title=''Cemetery Act'' of Alberta |access-date=July 13, 2009 |archive-date=January 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106073746/http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/1240.cfm |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name=China>{{cite book|author=Paul van Els|title=The Wenzi: Creativity and Intertextuality in Early Chinese Philosophy|page=12|publisher=Brill|date=2018|series=Studies in the History of Chinese Texts}}</ref> <ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04060/SN04060.pdf|title=Reuse of Graves. House of Commons Briefing Paper 04060|last=Fairbairn|first=C|date=2017|website=House of Commons|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170618071454/http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04060/SN04060.pdf|archive-date=18 June 2017|access-date=21 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> <ref name="NPR">[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5020426 "O'Hare Growth May Mean Moving a Cemetery".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207234456/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5020426 |date=2021-12-07 }} NPR, November 19, 2005. Accessed July 13, 2009.</ref> <ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The matter of death : space, place and materiality|last=Woodthorpe|first=Kate|date=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0230224162|editor-last=Hockey|editor-first=Jennifer Lorna|location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire|pages=117–132|chapter=Private Grief in Public Spaces. Interpreting Memorialisation in the Contemporary Cemetery|oclc=620092674|editor-last2=Komaromy|editor-first2=Carol|editor-last3=Woodthorpe|editor-first3=Kate}}</ref> <ref name="ap">{{cite news |last1=Kepley-Steward |first1=Kristy |title=Update: Graham County cemetery vandalism suspect arrested, charged |url=https://my40.tv/news/local/suspect-identified-in-graham-county-cemetery-vandalism-arrest-pending |access-date=7 December 2021 |publisher=Associated Press. |date=4 March 2019 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207233056/https://my40.tv/news/local/suspect-identified-in-graham-county-cemetery-vandalism-arrest-pending |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name=Qin>{{cite news|first=Amy|last=Qin|title=Tomb Robbing, Perilous but Alluring, Makes Comeback in China|date=July 15, 2017|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/world/asia/china-tomb-robbing-qin-dynasty.html|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=December 7, 2021|archive-date=December 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207221333/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/world/asia/china-tomb-robbing-qin-dynasty.html|url-status=live}}</ref> <ref name="Nat">{{cite web |title=Body Snatchers |url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/body-snatchers/ |website=National Archives |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207221337/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/body-snatchers/ |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/may/17/nation-cemeteries-full-graves|title=The nation's cemeteries are nearly full|last=Edemariam|first=Aida|date=17 May 2011|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522112024/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/may/17/nation-cemeteries-full-graves|archive-date=22 May 2018|access-date=21 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> <ref name="Har-El2004">{{cite book|author=Menashe Har-El|title=Golden Jerusalem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z2cFY9iGqgC&pg=PA244|date=2004|publisher=Gefen Publishing House Ltd|isbn=978-9652292544|page=244|access-date=2021-12-07|archive-date=2021-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207233054/https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z2cFY9iGqgC&pg=PA244|url-status=live}}</ref> <ref name="Chron">{{cite news |title=State briefs: White Teens Charged in Grave Desecration |url=https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/State-briefs-White-teens-charged-in-grave-1977172.php |access-date=9 January 2022 |publisher=Chron |date=12 May 2004 |archive-date=9 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109163934/https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/State-briefs-White-teens-charged-in-grave-1977172.php |url-status=live }}</ref> <ref name="Jpost">{{cite news |last1=Reich |first1=Aaron |title=Dozens of graves in Europe's oldest Jewish cemetery vandalized, desecrated |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/dozens-of-graves-in-europes-oldest-jewish-cemetery-vandalized-desecrated-634852 |access-date=7 December 2021 |publisher=Jpost Inc. |date=13 July 2020 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207233627/https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/dozens-of-graves-in-europes-oldest-jewish-cemetery-vandalized-desecrated-634852 |url-status=live }}</ref> </references>
==External links== * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xscRIIMdo7g Grave desecration at Kawaiahao cemetery]
{{commons}}
{{death}}{{War crimes}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desecration of graves}} Category:Burial monuments and structures Category:Archaeological features Category:Crimes Category:Archaeological theft Category:Organized crime activity Category:Grave desecration Category:Desecration Category:Necroviolence