Grave Robbing

Grave robbing refers to the desecration of graves in search of items of value. These items may be artifacts, objects, or human remains. Grave robbing stretches back to ancient times, and there are numerous examples of graves looted back into antiquity for the treasures that may have been deposited there. This entry focuses on the robbing of bodies from graves. It examines first the activities of the 18th- and 19th-century so-called body snatchers who were infamous for the theft of fresh corpses from their resting places. More controversially, the discussion then considers the removal of human remains from graves, as carried out by the archaeologists of that period.

The Essence of Grave Robbing

The use of the termgrave robbing assumes a moral dimension to the removal of artifacts and bodies from graves and a collective condemnation of acts deemed, therefore, to be immoral. Yet, there is some debate and controversy surrounding acts that are considered to fall within the definition of “robbing” and those presumed to have a moral quality because they are conducted under the guise of modern science and of furthering knowledge. So, for example, archaeologists' removal of mummified bodies from the tombs of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs was generally perceived as an exciting enterprise that has furthered human knowledge about the nature of life and death in an ancient and sophisticated culture. Indeed, much of our knowledge and understanding of ancient and medieval cultures is based on artifacts found, throughout the centuries, in the tombs of the dead.

In contrast, the removal of whole, freshly buried corpses is roundly condemned as an immoral practice that desecrates graves and violates the people buried there. These acts were common in Western societies in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, when the body snatchers went in search of bodies that were to be sold to the expanding schools of anatomy and medicine. Although the bodies were to be used in the furtherance of science and medicine, the fact that they were taken without permission, sold for profit, and that their erstwhile owners were only recently dead, led to public moral outrage.

In this entry the work of the body snatchers, or “resurrectionists” as they became known, and also the more recent debates about the repatriation of remains collected by archaeologists are discussed.

The Body Snatchers

In the 19th century and still today, understandings of the nature of the self means that it is not possible to own a body and, therefore, dead bodies cannot be protected from theft under the law. Even though it is currently common practice for bereaved kin to be consulted on the method of disposal and to be asked for their permission to use body parts for organ transplantation, there is no legal requirement for this custom.

Although there were cases of bodies being robbed from graves prior to the 18th century, the proliferation of this practice in the late 18th and throughout the 19th century was largely a consequence of the quest for greater understanding of anatomy and the functioning of the human body, as well as of the nature of disease. Dissection had for centuries been viewed as a postmortem punishment for extreme crimes, and the bodies of executed murderers were the only ones legally available to the anatomy schools. The number of anatomy and medical schools in Western countries multiplied dramatically during this period, and this created an increased demand for cadavers that could not be met within the established provision of allowing them the bodies of executed felons. Other sources had to be found, and this led to a lucrative trade in the “snatching” (or robbing) of newly dead bodies from graves.

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