Admirers of funerary art and those seeking a quiet, reflecting experience within the most beautiful cemeteries in the South, often find themselves on a pilgrimage to South Carolina to visit the old historic cemeteries that dot the landscape in the Palmetto State.

The old headstones, monuments, vaults, and tombs are only part of the overall experience of visiting a South Carolina cemetery. The meandering moss-draped limbs of gargantuan old live oak trees are still another awe-inspiring characteristic of our historic cemeteries. But there is one thing most people overlook...
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The Receiving Tomb. Although more commonly practiced in the 19th century in much colder climates in the North, there are a few receiving tombs to be found in South Carolina.
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But what IS a receiving tomb?

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Much like it sounds, the Receiving Tomb was a place, prior to modern funeral practices, where a dead body would be kept for up to a year while awaiting burial.
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Generally speaking, in colder climates, the need for a Receiving Tomb arose especially in the winter when the ground was often too frozen to dig a grave. Here in the South, a receiving tomb was still sometimes a necessary step in the burial process, especially while waiting for a grave site to be selected and readied for burial. It was also common to leave a loved one in a Receiving Tomb while a vault or burial tomb was constructed.
You'll find two of these nearly side by side in Charleston. One is located next to the Bethany Funeral Chapel in Bethany Cemetery.
Google Maps/Michael Miller
Modern-day burial practices no longer require the use of the Receiving Tomb, but they're still around and often overlooked or mistaken for yet another burial vault.
The other Receiving Tomb in the Charleston area is in the Magnolia Cemetery.
Flickr/ Like_the_Grand_Canyon
The ancient vault has walls that are very thick and were thought to help keep a body cool while it was stored inside. Another advantage of the Receiving Tomb was in the spirit of making sure someone wasn't buried alive.

Have you ever seen a Receiving Tomb (other than the two shown above) in South Carolina? We’d love to know!

For another ancient burial custom here in the Palmetto State, keep reading here to learn another, odd way people devised to keep from being buried alive.

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