# burial graves... six feet????? plus, brain eating zombies! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2000, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827 "2000-07-07T05:32:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/21 "2011-04-26T15:51:11Z")
Zombies always come up when it’s rainy; the soil is softer then and easier to dig. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/22 "2011-04-26T16:41:03Z")
> [@awldune](#): > > ETA: when we are talking about zombies though, they are traditionally hideously strong and can’t suffocate so I don’t see why they couldn’t dig their way out after several hours of work. Or 11 years, give or take. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/23 "2011-04-26T17:01:17Z")
A zombie thread about zombies. Meta. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/24 "2011-04-26T19:04:19Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > A zombie thread about zombies. Meta. If only it had ben resurrected 2 days earlier. Jesus! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/25 "2011-04-26T20:14:07Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > A zombie thread about zombies. Meta. :eek: I think my brain’s gonna asplode. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/26 "2011-04-26T20:30:03Z")
> [@ugly ripe tomato](#): > > :eek: > > I think my brain’s gonna asplode. Popped brains are the tastiest! ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/27 "2011-04-26T20:48:37Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > The phenomena is called ‘incorruptability’ and there are several verified cases. A quick search on Excite didn’t turn up anything good, but there is one saint who’s body is so well preserved, that it is on public display in a glass case! They say that when she was dug up, her coffin and her clothes had completly rotted away, yet her body is perfect till this very day. Really creepy. 11 years later, Google comes up with a site with [10 incorrupt corpses](http://listverse.com/2007/08/21/top-10-incorrupt-corpses/). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/28 "2011-04-26T21:01:34Z")
> [@tcburnett](#): > > In Hawaii, before the 19th century, royalty were treated with special honor. The meat was boiled off their bones and the bones were broken up and hidden. Unfortunately, the Christians came along and stopped this excellent practice. The Powhatan Indians had a similar practice, except rather than boiling the meat they just exposed it in a not-so-much-secretive-as-don’t-go-there-if-you-don’t-want-to-be-killed place and then when it was bones they were broken up and hidden in the clan’s burial ground. Until this the deceased was considered to still be out and about someplace as a ghost. The [1622 Massacre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre_of_1622) occurred soon after the bones of Wahunsonacock (aka King Powhatan, father of Pocahontas) were interred, and it’s thought this was probably because his brother and successor Opechancanough, who had been in Camp Get-Rid-of-Them since the English arrived, knew his brother’s spirit would be very p.o.d by the attack. Indians in Alabama also buried under the floor of the house, but at some point after (it’s not certain how long) they burned the house over it. Most of the mounds that were built here were not burial mounds in the sense of having bones inside of them (like the ones in Georgia and elsewhere) but a couple that were destroyed by roadbuilding were found to have remains under them (i.e. the entire mound was built on a grave). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/29 "2011-04-26T21:06:22Z")
> [@nightwolf53](#): > > I was grounds supervisor in a 2 cemeteries in S.C. and then 5 in Fla. over a period of 8 years. Supervisor, eh? How many people did you have under you? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/30 "2011-04-26T21:34:55Z")
- Whacks Johnny L.A. with a wet lobster \* ---
**Author:** ![nightwolf53](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@nightwolf53](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightwolf53)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/31 "2011-04-26T21:43:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Supervisor, eh? > > How many people did you have under you? between the 2 states a few million. and in case yall missed the numbers: depth single 4’8" double depth 10’6" ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/32 "2011-04-26T22:06:33Z")
> [@tcburnett](#): > > I read this somewhere, possibly in one of Cecil’s early books. [Why is “six feet under” the standard depth for burial?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2271/why-is-six-feet-under-the-standard-depth-for-burial) A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD: November 13, 2007 by SDSAB member Rico > [@](#): > > (T)here’s no minimum safe depth at which a body must be planted – burial depth can vary from 1.5 to 12 feet, sometimes even deeper. Individual jurisdictions specify their own minimum depths, but most are nowhere near six feet. > … > (W)here did the famed figure come from? Historians believe it dates to London’s Great Plague of 1665. In Daniel Defoe’s fictionalized account A Journal of the Plague Year, the diarist-narrator reports on an edict issued by the city’s lord mayor in June 1665 requiring that all graves be made at least six feet deep to limit the spread of the outbreak. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/33 "2011-04-26T22:20:01Z")
> [@nightwolf53](#): > > between the 2 states a few million. > and in case yall missed the numbers: > depth single 4’8" > double depth 10’6" Just to be clear, is that to the bottom of the hole, or to the top of the casket/vault? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/34 "2011-04-26T23:19:13Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > 11 years later, Google comes up with a site with [10 incorrupt corpses](http://listverse.com/2007/08/21/top-10-incorrupt-corpses/). Here’s a better photo of the blessed John the 23rd… I couldn’t get any closer or the people at the little chapel would have been pretty miffed. [https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-nBqVc2IB0OAuRuY2d04bg?feat=directlink](https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-nBqVc2IB0OAuRuY2d04bg?feat=directlink) ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/35 "2011-04-27T00:09:56Z")
> [@MagicalSilverKey](#): > > The standard U.S. depth for burial is six feet. > > Six feet from what though? > [li]Is the six feet: the distance from the base of the hole, to the ground surface?[/li][li]Or is it: six feet distance from the lid of the casket, to the surface of the ground, once the casket has been placed in the hole?[/li] > I have always believed it to be the latter, therefore making it “technically” more than six feet. Does the measurement also include the concrete “liner” that the casket is placed inside of? > > Not being morbid here, just wondering. not exactly sure how they got 6 feet but the grave digger has to prevent 3 things: 1. the remains rising to the surface due to ground/moisture percolation (happens in the tropics.) 2. animal and human scavenging 3. the settlement of the soil into the coffin cavity will not leave a noticeable depression at the surface (looks tacky.) > [@](#): > > Also, in horror films, zombies are often depicted digging themselves out and emerging. How much soil weight, cubic footage, and pressure would a zombie have to overcome to exhume itself? I’m guessing it’s going to be quite high numbers and if zombies were possible, they’d have one **hell** of a time getting out. vampires will definitely get out. settled earth has a density of around 1.3 to 1.6 a healthy human is not likely to dig his way out from 6 feet. zombies? they get all moldy and eroded just digging their way out. regarding that comment that the human/zombie can just fill half his coffin void with loosened soil and then step-ladding his/itself upward is a no-go. loosened soil (around 0.7 density) will fill the entire coffin and leave a small space in the settled earth above it less than 1 foot high. fill that with loosened soil from above and you leave a cavity only 6 inches high. do it one more time and you’ll be breathing loose soil. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/36 "2011-04-27T00:55:49Z")
You know, I’m Catholic and everything, but incorrupt corpses freak me out. Right out. I should not have clicked on that link. Aaagh. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827/37 "2011-04-27T06:37:38Z")
One summer as a teenager I worked at Mililani Memorial [http://www.mililanimemorial.com/](http://www.mililanimemorial.com/) as a groundskeeper. The gravediggers there had a story . . . One guy was down in the grave putting the last touches on straightening the walls of the dug grave. The other gravediggers fired up the back hoe/front end loader and put the scoop blade down so it covered the top of the grave, trapping the guy inside the grave. Then they went to lunch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burial-graves-six-feet-plus-brain-eating-zombies/24827.md?page=1)