When did the custom of throwing quicklime (CaO) into graves begin? And has
it always been believed that it hastens decomposition?

The received belief that it hastens decomposition of the remains must surely
be wrong - for both soft tissue and bones.

Contact of the quicklime with soil moisture and body fluids will produce
calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2)and thus a sterilising heat. Decomposition of
soft tissues, at least initially, would therefore be delayed.

Subsequently air will (albeit slowly) cause carbonation of the calcium
hydroxide, producing calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Once the heat has dissipated
I would imagine that the existence of lime in the soil is neither here nor
there for long term survival of soft tissue.

As for the bones, the end product of calcium carbonate obviously creates a
soil chemistry favourable to their survival.

So what is going on here?

Is supposed accelerated destruction an urban myth? The belief certainly
existed during the French Revolution in 1793, when workers exhumed members
of the royal family and dumped them in mass graves with quicklime.
Chateaubriand is said to have got himself excited at the thought of Louis
XIV landing on Marie de Medici's breast and being consumed by the quicklime.

Of course Chateaubriand's attitude is execration. Is this the clue? Is the
use of quicklime in reality symbolic only, to be used on the graves of
murderers, traitors, political prisoners - and others to be execrated at
interment?

The chemical side of this might be a interesting topic for forensic
replication experiments. Or has it been done already?

Richard Wright



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