Earth Laid Upon a Corpse

The Scottish Plains — Image courtesy of blog.kiltr.com

In the Scottish Highlands, a tradition of burying the deceased with a wooden plate, placed on the chest, piled with a mound of mixed salt and earth, has endured throughout the centuries, passed down from generation to generation, and remains in practice today. The salt to represent the preservation and immortality of the soul, and the earth to represent that which death has already brought about, the conversion and dissolution of the body back into the earth from whence it came. The practice is called “earth laid upon a corpse.”

While this might seem an esoteric local custom, in fact it incorporates many ideas and beliefs common throughout the world. Salt, an historically revered preservative, was considered near sacred amongst various nomadic tribes on the Arabian peninsula, was once traded as a unit of currency, and employed directly in embalming and mummification practices in Ancient Egypt and South America. The concept of an immortal soul existing together with the material body, both of which (perhaps significantly) are to be returned to the earth, is common in nearly all religions, in one form or another, be it Native American Indian “spirits,” Buddhist Karma, Hindi Dharma or the Jewish, Christian and Muslim belief in an afterlife. It is this concept of immortality, of life after death or death as a bridgeway to something larger than we are, that gives us all a sense of hope and meaning.

Pictured to the right, we have a traditional Scottish cemetery, and, while it resembles perhaps many typical North American and Anglo cemeteries, you might further note the tell-tale “Earth laid upon the corpse” plates and mounds at the chest area of the graves lends the scene its own distinctive air. The highlanders that still follow these practices would recognize it instantly.

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