A Brief History of Coffins to Caskets

The terms ‘coffin’ and ‘casket’ are often used interchangeably and are probably not unfamiliar to you, but they are indeed two different things. 

The easiest way to discern them is by their shape. Coffins are six-sided, widening at the shoulders and tapering at the feet, using anthropometric measurements, or measurements of the human body. Caskets, on the other hand, are rectangular in shape and have a hinged lid; some casket lids are split so they can be opened for viewing.

World History of Caskets

Different burial containers have existed across time and space. 

Egypt and Mesopotamia

The first known coffins originated in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and were constructed from wood, reeds, clay, or polished stone. Some Egyptian sarcophagi were elaborately decorated with hieroglyphics representative of the deceased individual’s life.

In addition to the sarcophagi that we recognize today, the Egyptians also used ‘mummy chests,’ which were constructed with either hardwood or papyrus paper and were shaped like the human form. 

Greece and Rome

In Ancient Greece and Rome, individuals would be buried in clay urn-shaped vessels with the body in a sitting position.

Chaldea

The Chaldean, of the Ancient Middle East, also used clay. These coffins were molded and baked around the body of the deceased. Unlike contemporary western cemeteries, Chaldean buried their dead in layers that could reach 30-60 feet below the surface.

The Ancient, and many modern, Chinese used simple, air-tight wooden coffins.

Judaism

Similarly, Jewish communities still use wooden coffins with rope handles and wooden pegs, utilizing no metal.

Early Christianity

Early Christians, who could afford it, were buried in limestone coffins. Limestone in particular was used because it was believed to ‘eat’ the body and speed up decomposition.

Medieval Europe

In Medieval Europe, lead coffins, “anthropomorphic in form” (Mytum, 2018), similar in shape to the ‘mummy chests’ were used by the elite and wealthy, The poor, however, would be wrapped in a cloth or shroud and placed directly into the ground.

Native Americans

Some Native American tribes would use rough wooden coffins, place the body in a canoe or wicker, or wrap the body in blankets to be placed in the ground.

Aboriginal Australia

Aboriginal Australians would use bark or wicker to cover the body, or they would construct a coffin from the hollowed-out center of a tree trunk. As shown in the image above, these were highly stylized, each clan having its own patterns. Larger logs would contain the body, while smaller logs may contain only the skeletal remains.

Norway

Some Nordic countries may prefer plain unadorned coffins.

Africa

Some African cultures use ‘fantasy’ coffins, which are elaborately adorned with symbology representative of the deceased.

The Transition from Coffins to Caskets in Western European and American Society

Medieval England

In Medieval England, many bodies were buried directly in the ground due to the belief that death was a temporary event. The ruling class, however, was an exception. Lead coffins, “anthropoid in form” (Mytum, 2018) and influenced by the Egyptian mummy cases, were used for the ruling class as early as the sixteenth century. 

England began to experience a shift in burial practices after Henry VII’s divorce from Elizabeth. As Henry pulled away from the Catholic Church, so too did England. The shift from Catholicism to Protestantism trickled its way down to burial practices and led to an increase in coffin burials, gravestones, and monuments.  

17th Century

In 1666, and again in 1679, parliament put forth that all bodies would be buried in a woolen shroud as a means to boost the wool industry at that time. During this time, it was predominately the royal and upper classes who would receive coffin burials.

It is possible that a law was put forth which allowed all classes a confined burials, but I could not find this law. However, it is true that during the “seventeenth-century shroud burial was replaced by coffined internment for a substantial section of society” (Mytum, 2018). The lead mummy cases were replaced by hexagonal coffins which were tapered at the feet. 

The hexagonal casket was brought into North America by the English colonists, “the hexagonal shape was almost exclusively used throughout the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century, and remained the dominant form in Britain for most of the nineteenth century” (Mytum, 2018) and into the twentieth century. Some examples of these early coffins can be seen at Jamestown.

18th Century

In Western society, the coffin acted as a sort of status symbol, but for those who could not afford a coffin burial, there was always the parish coffin. The parish coffin was a coffin used to transport the body from the church to the graveyard. In 1785, the ‘economy coffin’ was introduced by Joseph the II (pictured below), which had a drop bottom which would allow the body to be dropped into the grave for burial and the coffin to be reused.

However, “The use of communal coffins for funerals that were not left in the grave meant that although coffin use appeared almost universal to contemporaries during the funeral ceremony, it was only by the early nineteenth century that everyone was provided with their own coffin, even the destitute” (Mytum, 2018).

During the 18th century in Egland, coffin furniture, or the hardware attached to coffins, gained in popularity. It was in the latter half of this century that specialization in coffin hardware began to appear. 

 A full set of coffin furniture consisted of:

A breastplate

Handles

Decorative grip plates

Lid mortis/Escutcheons

A pauper’s coffin would often be just a simple coffin, with either no hardware or just handles. Prior to this specialization, if handles were used, they would have been “bail handles with two lugs that fix the handle to the coffin” (Mytum, 2018). 

With specialization, also came personalization. Coffin nails, which would have been made from copper alloy or lead would sometimes be used to write out the name and dates for a deceased individual, and/or could be used to create a more artistic design.

With personalization and specialization came mass production. However, mass production of coffin hardware limited the amount of personalization, as “aesthetic variation was relatively restricted, being largely based around neoclassical symbols, cherubs, and foliage” (Mytum, 2018).

19th Century

In the United States, initially, coffins had been constructed by furniture and cabinet makers on an as-needed basis; families would take their deceased loved ones directly to a carpenter to have the coffin custom-made. Although metal coffins were available by the mid-1800s, thanks to the technology used to mass-produce metal pots, they wouldn’t become popular in the United States until the 1900s.

One metal coffin, invented in 1848, was the Fisk Metallic Burial case, or the ‘Fisk’ casket. The Fisk casket resembled the Egyptian mummy cases. However, due to their cost (at $100 compared to the $2 of a pine casket) and weight, they were generally only used by the affluent and those afraid of body snatching. 

During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was common across Europe to be afraid of a premature burial. After all, medicine was still relatively primitive.

During this time, the ‘safety coffin’ came into popularity. In Germany alone, 30 different styles of safety coffins were invented. Many designs included a mechanism which would allow the buried to communicate that they were still alive. These mechanics included, but were not limited to ropes to ring a bell or raise a flag, mini explosives or firecrackers, a shovel and supplies, and a breathing tube.

In 1822, Dr. Adolf Gutsmuth was voluntarily buried alive in order to demonstrate his safety coffin. He remained below ground for several hours with the use of a tube that provided air and even soup.

Although there is historical evidence and patents of safety coffins, there has not yet been any archaeological evidence.

One event during the 19th century would change the face of coffins, along with the rest of the funeral industry.

The American Civil War

Although coffins had been largely constructed on an as-needed basis, the mass casualties of the American Civil War necessitated the mass production of coffins. With this mass production came a change in the undertaker profession. No longer needing to construct coffins, undertakers now focused more on caring for the deceased, the precursor of the funeral director.

Out of the Civil War also came the ‘transportation’ case. The transportation case is exactly what it sounds like, a coffin specifically designed to transport the corpse. Due to many individuals dying away from home, it was necessary to transport them home. The transportation case boasted that it could preserve a family’s fallen loved one during transportation until they could be properly buried.

The Casket

However, the biggest change that came out of the Civil War was a shift in the attitudes of Americans toward death. This change was most likely directly related to the mass casualties caused by the Civil War. These changing attitudes were accompanied by a change in burial containers and their design. 

The casket was streamlined, its rectangular shape softening the previously anthropometric shape of the coffin. “For Americans, the idea of a casket seemed a more appropriate way to honor the dead and to distance themselves from the ugliness of death.” Even the word ‘casket’ was softer as it is Old French for a small box that contains valuables, “the term ‘casket’ was originally a euphemism used by undertakers in the 19th century to soften the harshness associated with death” (Overnight Caskets, 2024).

By the 20th century, the casket had fully replaced the coffin in America. In Britain, however, the coffin remained the primary burial receptacle until the late 19th century.  

Caskets Today

Today, many individuals and funeral homes are taking the environment into consideration and are using materials such as bamboo, willow, and even biodegradable plastics. In the U.S, almost 75% of caskets are made out of steel and may be lined with copper or zinc. It has been estimated that 200 million pounds of steel go into the production of caskets each year. 

References

Australian Museum (e.d) (2018). Burial – Coffins and Caskets. Australian Musem. https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/burial-coffins-and-caskets/ 

Australian Museum (e.d) (2018). Safety Coffins. Australian Musem. https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/safety-coffins/ 

Hays, Sarah (2017). From Coffins to Caskets: on American History. The Coffin Works. https://www.coffinworks.org/from-coffins-to-caskets-an-american-history/ 

Hoile, S. (2018). Coffin furniture in London c. 1700–1850: the establishment of tradition in the material culture of the grave. Post-Medieval Archaeology, 52(2), 210–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/00794236.2018.1515399 

McIntire, Tracy (2023). The Civil War Underground: Coffins to Caskets. National Museum of Civil War Medicine.  www.civilwarmed.org/coffins-to-caskets/ 

Mytum, H. (2018). United in Death? A Comparative Introduction to Historic Mortuary Culture. In Death Across Oceans: Archaeology of Coffins and Vaults in Britain, America, and Australia (pp. 1–19). Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.

Overnight Caskets e.d (2024). Why are they called Caskets? Overnight Caskets. overnightcaskets.com/blog/why-are-they-called-caskets/ 

UK Parliament (n.d). Burying the Dead. UK Parliament. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/death-dying/dying-and-death/burying/