It all started with the plague : The origins of “ six foot under ” come from a 1665 irruption in England . As the disease swept the country , the mayor of London literally laid down the law about how to deal with the bodies to avoid further infections . Among his specifications — made in “ Orders Conceived and Published by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London , Concerning the Infection of the Plague”—was that “ all the grave shall be at least six feet deep . ”
The law eventually fell out of favor both in England and its dependency . Modern American inhumation Pentateuch vary from state to state , though many states simply require a minimal of18 inches of soilon top of the coffin or burial vault ( or two feet of dirt if the body is not enclose in anything ) . Given an 18 - inch dirt buffer and the height of the average casket ( which looks like about 30 inches ) , a grave as shallow as four feet would be fine .
A typical innovative burial need a body pump full of chemical preservatives seal off inside a sturdy metal casket , which is itself varnish inside a steel or cementum burial hurdle . It ’s less of a hospitable environment for germ than the grave used to be . Foruntypicalburials , though — where the consistency is n’t embalmed , a vault is n’t used , or the casket is wood instead of alloy or is foregone entirely — even these less strict entombment banner provide a bill of prophylactic and ease . Without any protective cover , and subjected to a few year of territory corroding , the bones of the dearly take off could inconveniently and circumstantially turn up or get too close to the living , scaringpeople and acting as disease vector . The minimal profundity helps keep the dead down where they belong .
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This article in the beginning appeared in 2012 .
