coffin

coffin, the receptacle in which a corpse is confined. The Greeks and Romans disposed of their dead both by burial and by cremation. Greek coffins were urn-shaped, hexagonal, or triangular, with the body arranged in a sitting posture. The material used was generally burnt clay and in some cases had obviously been molded around the body and baked. In the Christian era stone coffins came into use. Romans who were rich enough had their coffins made of a limestone brought from Assus, in Asia Minor, which was commonly believed to “eat” the body.

Chaldean coffins were generally clay urns with the top left open; from the size of the mouth it is apparent that these coffins were molded and baked around the body. The Egyptian coffins, or sarcophagi, were the largest stone coffins known and were generally highly polished and covered with hieroglyphics that usually told a history of the deceased. Mummy chests shaped to the form of the body were also used, being made of hardwood or painted papier-mâché; these also bore hieroglyphics.

Primitive wooden coffins, formed of a tree trunk split down the centre and hollowed out, are still in use among some aboriginal peoples. This type of coffin, modified by planing, was used in medieval Europe by those who could not afford stone, while the poor were buried without coffins, wrapped simply in cloth or covered with hay and flowers. Lead coffins were also used in Europe during the Middle Ages; these were shaped like the mummy chests of Egypt. Iron coffins were used in England and Scotland as late as the 17th century, when coffins became usual for all classes, including the poor.

Among the American Indians some tribes used roughhewn wooden coffins; others sometimes enclosed the corpse between the upper and lower shells of a turtle. In their tree and scaffold burial the Indians sometimes used wooden coffins or travois baskets or simply wrapped the body in blankets. Canoes, mounted on a scaffold near a river, were used as coffins by some tribes, while others placed the corpse in a canoe or wicker basket and floated it out into the stream or lake. The Aborigines of Australia generally used coffins of bark, but some tribes employed baskets of wickerwork.

In the United States glass is sometimes used for the lids, and the inside is lined with copper or zinc. Coffins used in cremation throughout the civilized world are of some light material easily consumed and yielding little ash.