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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.

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A Taphophilia Thank You...

Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From
its conception and early development, DarkestWeb
was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.

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Announcements

Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.

Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.

Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana
for more information.

West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.

Syndicate

Arrete! C'est ici L'Empire de la Mort -- "Stop! This is the Empire of Death."
Egypt tests DNEgypt tests DNA from fetuses in Tut’s tombA from fetuses in Tut’s tomb
Ancient Egypt
Wednesday, 06 August 2008
By Salah Nasrawi

CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian scientists are carrying out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine whether they are the young pharaoh's offspring, Egyptian antiquity authorities said Wednesday. The two tiny female fetuses, between five to seven months in gestational age, were found in the King Tut's tomb in Luxor when the tomb was disovered by Howard Carter in 1922.

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Cause Of Death
Media Reviews
Friday, 04 July 2008
Cause of Death: A Perfect Little Guide to What Kills Us by Jack Mingo

Now you can add to your stack of Star Wars tomes a new volume of factoid porn from George Lucas Books called Cause of Death: A Perfect Little Guide to What Kills Us. Why is Lucas publishing this book full of stats about how many people die from bad breath (lots) vs. how many die from hormones (way more)? Apparently the guy just has death on his mind. Could this be a secret hint about certain events to come in the Clone Wars series and August movie?
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Bozo the Clown star Larry Harmon dies
Celebrity Deaths
Thursday, 03 July 2008

Larry Harmon, who played Bozo the Clown for more than 50 years, has died of congestive heart failure at age 83, his spokesman confirmed. Harmon, a native of Ohio, died at his home in Los Angeles, spokesman Jerry Digney said. Harmon was not the original Bozo, but he portrayed the flame-haired clown in numerous appearances over the years.

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Rock anthems replacing hymns at funerals
Mourning
Thursday, 03 July 2008
Australia - Frank Sinatra, Loui Armstrong and Led Zeppelin hits are replacing hymns at funerals in Australia, according to a cemetery manager. At Centennial Park, the largest cemetery and crematorium in the southern city of Adelaide, only two hymns still rank alongside songs like Frank Sinatra's classic hit My Way and Louis Armstrong's version of Wonderful World in its top 10 most popular funeral songs: Amazing Grace and Abide With Me.
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Coffin bungle pair get sentences cut
Funeral Scams
Thursday, 03 July 2008
By Helen Gabriel

UK - Two bungling funeral bosses from York who hid the body of a dead baby in an elderly woman’s coffin have had their sentences slashed. Mark Eshelby and Graeme Skidmore, former colleagues at Co-operative Funeral Services in Cromwell Road, were both sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined £5,000 each, at York Crown Court last June after admitting conspiring to prevent a proper burial.

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Hans Christian Anderson's tomb vandalised
Vandalism
Thursday, 03 July 2008

COPENHAGEN — The gravestone of Denmark's famed story teller Hans Christian Andersen was vandalised along with other tombs at a cemetery in Copenhagen, police said on Wednesday. The tomb of the author, who penned stories including "The Little Mermaid", was covered in messages referring to a residence for young people razed in March last year, said police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch. The city of Copenhagen recently cleaned graffiti off the wall surrounding the cemetery and, according to Munch, the vandalism that took place overnight Tuesday was in response to this.

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Louisiana funeral home, photos capture wedding bliss
Funeral Home
Thursday, 03 July 2008

NEW ORLEANS — In the midst of death, one funeral home has constant evidence of life. Its sweeping staircase has been the backdrop for photographs of Mardi Gras krewes, prom couples, homecoming queens and bride after bride after bride. "Thousands of brides have had their wedding pictures on our staircase," said Joe Daigle, manager of J.E. Hixson & Sons Funeral Home in Lake Charles, about 320 kilometres west of New Orleans.

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'Graveyard groomer' helps restore stones at cemetery
Restoration
Thursday, 03 July 2008
By Mike Lesko

Bedford, Ohio -- John Walters loves the feeling he gets from fixing up aging gravestones. "It's like you're saving history and artwork from more than 100 years ago," he said. "It seems like you are righting a wrong. "So many times, you look at the surnames on the graves and then look at the nearby roads - roads that were named after these people, They are the people who carved out this area." Walters, a gravestone restorer, was  summoned to work at Bedford Cemetery during the last full week in June. "It can be slow, pains-taking work," Walters said.

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A Serious Undertaking
Funeral Industry
Thursday, 03 July 2008
By Brendan Kiley

James Green is dead. He's lying on a classroom table—eyes closed, hands across his chest—while Donna Belk, who lectures on do-it-yourself funerals, explains how to wash a corpse at home. "In my experience, bodies leak a negligible amount of fluid, but you may want to put a plastic sheet down, just in case." She turns to Green: "You don't have to do any leaking." The ersatz corpse cracks a smile and the dozen students in the room shout, "He's alive! He's alive!"
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Stonehenge was a place of burial, researchers say
Ancient Burial
Thursday, 29 May 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates. Dating of cremated remains shows burials took place as early as 3000 B.C., when the first ditches around the monument were being built, researchers said Thursday. And those burials continued for at least 500 years, when the giant stones that mark the mysterious circle were being erected, they said.

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Head Of UCLA Cadaver Program Indicted
Harvesting
Saturday, 17 May 2008
By Amy Beeman

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) -- Two California men were indicted on federal felony charges Friday, accused of dealing in human body parts. Authorities say the former head of the University of California, Los Angeles' cadaver program, Henry Reid, 58, sold the cadavers and body parts that were donated to the program to business man Ernest Nelson, 50, who then sold the parts to medical, pharmaceutical and hospital research companies.

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Mystery deepens over German poet Schiller's skull
Grave Mistakes
Monday, 05 May 2008

BERLIN (Reuters) - A painstaking two-year investigation to determine which of two skulls belonged to Friedrich Schiller has found neither is a match, prolonging a 180-year-old mystery over the celebrated German poet's remains. A team of international experts came to their surprise conclusion after comparing DNA samples from the two skulls in question to material from the graves of the poet's relatives.

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophilia Facts

Ancient Egyptians used nitre, a naturally occurring potassium nitrite, to cure the bodies of the dead. Those who could afford it received elaborate embalming, with palm wine and perfume; the poor were injected with a cheap preservative.
 

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?
 

Quote Repository

Where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.

Sir Thomas Brown

Grave Epigrams

Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To digg the dust encloased heare!
Bleste be ye man that spares thes stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

William Shakespeare

 

Shirtless and Sculpted

The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.

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