Buzz
The concept of 'six feet under' began with the plague in 1665, during an outbreak in England. As the disease ravaged the country, the mayor of London made it official policy to set specific guidelines for handling the bodies in order to prevent further spread. Among these guidelines—found in the 'Orders Conceived and Published by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, Concerning the Infection of the Plague'—was the rule that 'all the graves shall be at least six feet deep.'
Over time, the law fell out of practice both in England and its colonies. Today, burial regulations in the U.S. vary by state, but many states only mandate a minimum of 18 inches of soil on top of the casket or burial vault (or two feet if the body isn’t enclosed). With an 18-inch soil buffer and the typical casket height (about 30 inches), a grave as shallow as four feet would suffice.
Modern burials generally involve embalming the body with chemical preservatives, sealing it inside a sturdy metal casket, which is then placed inside a steel or cement vault. This setup makes it far less hospitable for bacteria than the old burial methods. However, for nontraditional burials—where the body isn’t embalmed, a vault isn’t used, or the casket is wooden or absent altogether—these relaxed standards still help ensure safety. Without such protections, and after several years of soil erosion, bones could resurface and pose a risk to the living, scaring people and acting as potential carriers of disease. Thus, the minimum depth remains important to keep the dead properly buried.
This article was first published in 2012.
