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Death and Ashes

Death and Ashes

by Adam Huber on May 20, 2021 at 7:59 am
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Discussion (9) ¬

  1. Wingspin
    Wingspin
    May 20, 2021, 9:26 am | # | Reply

    Yay! A weekday comic! When you said “all or nothing” my mind went somewhere else… You see, there was a myth that you don’t get all of the “cremains” back after cremation… So, I naturally thought that was where you were going. The truth is… no matter how “seared” they did my cremains… my wife would send it back to the “kitchen.” 😀

    • Dinwar
      Dinwar
      May 20, 2021, 9:42 pm | # | Reply

      You don’t get the whole body, I know that. Most is burned off fairly efficiently—once you reach the kindling point of fat, you turn into a candle essentially. The “ashes” are really ground up bones, the only part to not burn up. It is unlikely that they get all the bones. Many are small, many are hard to identify even among professionals, and many of us have small seismic bones (think knee caps, only smaller) somewhere in our bodies, which may not be recognizable. Lots of fun studies have been done regarding the ability of experts to identify bones when they are not inside humans.

      Interestingly, cremated remains preserve better in the archaeological record than normal bones. No one really knows why, but they think it has something to do with phase changes in the phospho-apatite in the bone at >800 C, which allows for greater uptake of minerals from the ground. I have often wondered if certain fossiliferous formations have so many fossils because of forest fires. I know they had fires—you can see the ash—but whether that helps preserve the bone is something I can’t figure out how to test.

      Probably more than you wanted to know. 🙂 I spent…..too much time researching this a few years back. Learned that if you read a book on how to dispose of bodies at lunch on a construction site people leave you alone!

      • caveman
        caveman
        May 21, 2021, 12:08 am | # | Reply

        There’s an instruction book on how to dispose of bodies?

        • BugFanNo1Million
          BugFanNo1Million
          May 21, 2021, 4:25 pm | # | Reply

          Yes, there are laws and regulations governing the disposal of the dead, along with recommended practices for funeral homes.

          • caveman
            caveman
            May 22, 2021, 2:08 am | #

            Yes, but none of these cover the disposal of bodies on a construction site, be it at lunch time or midnight.

        • Diwnar
          Diwnar
          May 22, 2021, 7:11 am | # | Reply

          In my case it was a book on archaeology of human remains. Fascinating topic, but yeah, it boils down to “And here is another way to get rid of a corpse.” Once you know what conditions preserve remains, you know what conditions make them disappear. The book was relevant for my job, but many people found it creepy.

  2. Hauke
    Hauke
    May 20, 2021, 10:33 am | # | Reply

    That’s basically what the ancient egyptians did.

    • /s
      /s
      May 21, 2021, 12:42 am | # | Reply

      Soups of the day?

  3. anonymous
    anonymous
    May 24, 2021, 5:51 pm | # | Reply

    Cuts a little too close. My wife passed last summer and I had her cremated.

    You CANNOT, by law (at least in New York) get implants and other non-combustible bits back. My wife had a titanium replacement knee, and they could not return that to me.

    Back in the 1930s and 40s, there’re was an outfit that was trying to get rich on gold teeth from cremains. The world took a VERY dim view on that activity.

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