In his column What happens during cremation?, Cecil quotes from a scientist who says that he has not heard of an instance of a corpse sitting up during the cremation process.
That may be the case for cremation in a professional, high-temperature crematorium, some time after the person has died of other causes, been emblamed, started to decay, etc. However, I’ve read that when a corpse is burned shortly after death, there have been cases where the body flexes at the waist and arm joints into what is called the “equestrian position” (and no, this thread doesn’t have any connection to Is necrophilia illegal? (Subtitle: Ewwww …)).
One noted example of this happpening was with the cremation of Goebbels in the bunker. In The Death of Hitler : The Full Story With New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives by Ada Petrova and Peter Watson, the authors report that after Goebbels committed suicide, his aides tried to destroy the body by burning it with gasoline. Because of the relatively low temperature and the shortage of fuel, the body wasn’t destroyed, but it did assume the equestrian position, almost as if he was riding a horse and “Sieg Heiling.” There’s a photo of it in the book.
If you read down that site you will see a discussion of rigor mortis in more detail than most people would care to know. Important to this discussion, rigor mortis is the breakdown of the chemical composition of the muscle structure. It begins a couple hours after death and lasts for several hours. These variations in onset time and length depend on several factors, notably ambient temperature. At first the body is limp and flaccid - your typical “dead body” syndrome. Rigor mortis makes the body stiffen up, due to muscle contractions and hardening. This typically does not alter the body position, causing movement. (Some extreme cases may have this happen.) After a time as the muscles degenerate, the rigor leaves and the body becomes limp again.
Regarding burning corpses, I suspect that in the case of cremation, we are talking about bodies that have not only begun rigor, but completed rigor. The muscles no longer have any chemical integrity, so burning does not cause the body to twitch or move or sit up. However, in cases of burning quickly after death, the body will tense up to the aformentioned position. This would likely be from the still intact chemical structure of the muscles reacting to the heat.
The equstrian position is also known as the boxer position.
It occurs when the ligaments and tendons shrinks during a body burning. The knees are drawn up and the arms flexed in front of the torso in the position a boxer uses to defend himself typically. This is very common when bodies are burned during house fires or accidents.
Modern cremation equipment burns the body at a very high temprature, usually too high for this to occur, although it used to be observed during cremations with older equipment.
Rigor Mortis is an unlikely answer as it would be unusal (and posibly illegal) to cremate a body so soon after death.
Kipper, I did not mean to imply that cremation would occur so early. My thoughts were that the “boxer position” was an effect of burning that occurs in the case of accidents and fires, not during the cremation process. Those happen before Rigor Mortis sets in, thus the effect.
Whereas cremation would take place long after Rigor Mortis has run its course, thereby destroying the chemical pathways in the muscles. Thus no contraction.
You mention that it was observed during cremations with older equipement at lower temperatures. This would be in contrast to what Cecil references in his column, though perhaps would fit if Cecil’s reference was fairly recent and antedated the older methods.
Irishman, think of cooking a joint of meat in the oven, you know how that big slab of meat shrinks up, especially if you cook it to long, this is what happens to some-ones muscles when they are burnt. Your bones don’t shrink causing the limbs to flex.
I can’t comment on your chemical explanation for this, it’s outside of my sphere of knowlege.
My information came from a documentary on a cemetary/crematorium in Brighton (UK). On this they discribed the equipment they used, saying in passing that corpses didn’t sit up like they used to in the old days due to changes in the process used (higher tempratures). They also commented that the whole process was now a lot quicker with more of the bone being burnt.
Thanks for clearing up your argument with your post.