Cremation

[Jona Lendering]

I am currently writing an article on what the city of Rome needed to survive. You know the figures: the produce of about nine million peasants, one million square cubic meter of water, 170,000,000 liter of wine, 51,000,000 liter of olive oil, 300,000 cattle, and so on. So far, so good.

But how much wood is needed to cremate the dead? There were about 65,000 a year; one third of these were babies, who were usually buried in amphoras which needed no wood; we may assume that 10% of the remainder were a prey for the dogs and birds; what remains are some 39,000 cremations.

How much wood will be needed? The crematory I called, replied that they did not use wood any more - something I might have thought of earlier.

[D B Campbell]

I suspect that you might find something of use in Jacqueline McKinley's paper, "Phoenix Rising: aspects of cremation in Roman Britain", in the volume: Burial, Society and Context in the Roman World (eds. J Pearce, M Millett, M Struck, 2000). I'm afraid that I do not have this volume, so I cannot check.

[Epictetus]

In traditional Hindu cremations, the body is placed atop a pile of wood. The corpse is then covered with more wood and burned in the open air. Mokshda says this method requires as much as 880 pounds of wood to burn a single corpse (though the wood porters in Varanasi say the amount is closer to 600 pounds), a process that can take as long as six hours.

Cremation Association of North America

In a wood cremation, it takes about 360 kilograms of wood to fully burn a body...

Journalism School, Columbia

These are in regards to modern Hindu ceremonies, but they both are in the same range of figures. 360 kg = 793 pounds

You could call a Hindu temple to see what they had to say.

[M. Demetrius]

That's a lot of wood. No wonder they made mass graves after battles. Imagine the labor of getting that much green wood in one place, the fires kindled, etc., if there were thousands of bodies.

[Theodosius the Great]

How much wood will be needed? The crematory I called, replied that they did not use wood any more - something I might have thought of earlier.

Are you alluding to the use of Greek Fire or the Roman equivalent of the time in question ? If so, I don't see why it wouldn't be a practical solution.

~Theo

[Jona Lendering]

That's a lot of wood.

And that's why I need to know it. I get the impression that almost a square kilometer / year of forest was needed. I want to check how much wood was needed for the bathhouses as well. All this had to be found upstream from Rome, because the river is the easiest way of transport.

It is feasible, in the sense that deforestation does not have to be the inevitable result. But for every tree you cut, a new one has to be planted, which must be allowed to grow for fifty years. This suggests some kind of control, and we know for certain that the emperor Severus Alexander earmarked certain forests, to be added to what was already being used (SHA, Severus Alexander 24.1).

[Sean Manning]

That sounds like interesting research. I'd imagine we could produce an estimate accurate to a factor of 2 or 3, even with the ferocious debates right now about ancient standards of living.

That's a lot of wood.

And that's why I need to know it. I get the impression that almost a square kilometer / year of forest was needed. I want to check how much wood was needed for the bathhouses as well. All this had to be found upstream from Rome, because the river is the easiest way of transport.

It is feasible, in the sense that deforestation does not have to be the inevitable result. But for every tree you cut, a new one has to be planted, which must be allowed to grow for fifty years. This suggests some kind of control, and we know for certain that the emperor Severus Alexander earmarked certain forests, to be added to what was already being used (SHA, Severus Alexander 24.1).

Hold on- what about coppicing? That produces useable timber quickly. I don't know anything about ancient forestry, but coppicing was very important for producing fuel during the middle ages. Of course, the fact that more sustainable methods were available didn't mean they were always used.

[Jona Lendering]

Hold on- what about coppicing?

Good point.