burial
    n 1: the ritual placing of a corpse in a grave [syn: burial,
         entombment, inhumation, interment, sepulture]
    2: concealing something under the ground [syn: burying,
       burial]

Burial \Bur"i*al\, n. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS.
   byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli
   sepulcher.]
   1. A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            The erthe schook, and stoones weren cloven, and
            biriels weren opened.                 --Wycliff
                                                  [Matt. xxvii.
                                                  51, 52].
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The act of burying; depositing a dead body in the earth,
      in a tomb or vault, or in the water, usually with
      attendant ceremonies; sepulture; interment. "To give a
      public burial." --Shak.
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            Now to glorious burial slowly borne.  --Tennyson.
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   Burial case, a form of coffin, usually of iron, made to
      close air-tight, for the preservation of a dead body.

   Burial ground, a piece of ground selected and set apart for
      a place of burials, and consecrated to such use by
      religious ceremonies.

   Burial place, any place where burials are made.

   Burial service.
      (a) The religious service performed at the interment of
          the dead; a funeral service.
      (b) That portion of a liturgy which is read at an
          interment; as, the English burial service.
          [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Sepulture; interment; inhumation.
        [1913 Webster]

Burial
   The first burial we have an account of is that of Sarah (Gen.
   23). The first commercial transaction recorded is that of the
   purchase of a burial-place, for which Abraham weighed to Ephron
   "four hundred shekels of silver current money with the
   merchants." Thus the patriarch became the owner of a part of the
   land of Canaan, the only part he ever possessed. When he himself
   died, "his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of
   Machpelah," beside Sarah his wife (Gen. 25:9).
   
     Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, was buried under Allon-bachuth, "the
   oak of weeping" (Gen. 35:8), near to Bethel. Rachel died, and
   was buried near Ephrath; "and Jacob set a pillar upon her grave"
   (16-20). Isaac was buried at Hebron, where he had died (27, 29).
   Jacob, when charging his sons to bury him in the cave of
   Machpelah, said, "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife;
   there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried
   Leah" (49:31). In compliance with the oath which he made him
   swear unto him (47:29-31), Joseph, assisted by his brethren,
   buried Jacob in the cave of Machpelah (50:2, 13). At the Exodus,
   Moses "took the bones of Joseph with him," and they were buried
   in the "parcel of ground" which Jacob had bought of the sons of
   Hamor (Josh. 24:32), which became Joseph's inheritance (Gen.
   48:22; 1 Chr. 5:1; John 4:5). Two burials are mentioned as
   having taken place in the wilderness. That of Miriam (Num.
   20:1), and that of Moses, "in the land of Moab" (Deut. 34:5, 6,
   8). There is no account of the actual burial of Aaron, which
   probably, however, took place on the summit of Mount Hor (Num.
   20:28, 29).
   
     Joshua was buried "in the border of his inheritance in
   Timnath-serah" (Josh. 24: 30).
   
     In Job we find a reference to burying-places, which were
   probably the Pyramids (3:14, 15). The Hebrew word for "waste
   places" here resembles in sound the Egyptian word for
   "pyramids."
   
     Samuel, like Moses, was honoured with a national burial (1
   Sam. 25:1). Joab (1 Kings 2:34) "was buried in his own house in
   the wilderness."
   
     In connection with the burial of Saul and his three sons we
   meet for the first time with the practice of burning the dead (1
   Sam. 31:11-13). The same practice is again referred to by Amos
   (6:10).
   
     Absalom was buried "in the wood" where he was slain (2 Sam.
   18:17, 18). The raising of the heap of stones over his grave was
   intended to mark abhorrence of the person buried (comp. Josh.
   7:26 and 8:29). There was no fixed royal burying-place for the
   Hebrew kings. We find several royal burials taking place,
   however, "in the city of David" (1 Kings 2:10; 11:43; 15:8; 2
   Kings 14:19, 20; 15:38; 1 Kings 14:31; 22:50; 2 Chr. 21:19, 20;
   2 Chr. 24:25, etc.). Hezekiah was buried in the mount of the
   sepulchres of the sons of David; "and all Judah and the
   inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death" (2 Chr.
   32:33).
   
     Little is said regarding the burial of the kings of Israel.
   Some of them were buried in Samaria, the capital of their
   kingdom (2 Kings 10:35; 13:9; 14:16).
   
     Our Lord was buried in a new tomb, hewn out of the rock, which
   Joseph of Arimathea had prepared for himself (Matt. 27:57-60;
   Mark 15:46; John 19:41, 42).
   
     The grave of Lazarus was "a cave, and a stone lay on it" (John
   11:38). Graves were frequently either natural caverns or
   artificial excavations formed in the sides of rocks (Gen. 23:9;
   Matt. 27:60); and coffins were seldom used, unless when the body
   was brought from a distance.
   

BURIAL. The act of interring the dead. 
     2. No burial is lawful unless made in conformity with the local 
regulations; an when a dead body has been found, it cannot be lawfully 
buried until the coroner has holden an inquest over it. In England. it is 
the practice for coroners to issue warrants to bury, after a view. 2 Umf. 
Lex. Coron. 497, 498.