An important development of Vervaart Uitvaartverzoring; The Tumulus, an innovative development in the field of burial and remembering.
Long before Ad Vervaart from De Meern in
The Netherlands started working as a funeral director 25 years ago, he became fascinated by megaliths when on vacation in Drenthe.
'A megalith is built up as a group stones, some lying down and others standing up, filled in with the earth that has come spilling out in the course of time. It was an earthen mound, usual in the centre of a village, where the deceased were interred. I believe that keeping the dead close by is a meaningful idea. They were very near.
The idea remained in my head and when I started work in the funeral business, I began to work it out. Some people prefer to be buried; others want to be cremated. But there are those who consider a burial as too cold, or a cremation as too abrupt. The tumulus is an alternative for these people. I also believe that those who are left behind can find peace more easily by consigning their dead in this way. I got in touch with Mr. Verkade Sr., the archtitect who was designing the hotel of the future. I said to him: 'Put a few niches in a circle on top of each other, some of them above and others partly under the surface level, so that you can see over the tops.' He took hold of a pencil immediately and strated sketching. Verkade was very ill at the time and died shortly after. His son continued with the design later on.'
The Tumulus; Why?
Burials usually take place on the outskirts of cities, towns and villages, far away from people. Fear of death, the scent of death: these have caused our leaders to decide collectively that our cemeteries should be situated outside of the world we live in.
Public transportation, especially for the elderly, is the only means of visiting the dearly departed. The orthogonal arrangement of most cemeteries seems to dismiss every trace of human emotion. Seclusion, equality and respect are all dissolved in an endless monotony. Fear and distance keep people away from their cemeteries.
But where do we actually want to be buried?
A choice that does not have to be made as long as there is no direct reason to make it: in the end we choose what is easiest and most obvious. The cemetery on the outskirts of the town or village.
The vicious circle has been completed once again.
Preferences
There are a number of people who have ideas and preferences with respect to how and where they would like to be buried. Often, we cannot comply with their wishes because of certain rules and regulations - including some that seem to have been merely invented for no particular reason - that apply to the burial of a person.
A person's own preferences should should be the deciding factor in both the burial and its location.
Being together,equality, seclusion, privacy, a place to sit, nature, greenery, on a small scale, accessibility, taking a stroll or a rest, crying, laughing, remembering, being able to choose, being flexible. The place where a person is buried is should be subordinate to these human emotions. One person may want to be placed under a tree, another may want to be covered in asphalt.
The development of a cemetery where all these emotions can be felt is not easy because of all the preconditions and because of the fear people have when they are confronted by death. Burials should take place in the midst of life, close by but out of sight.
A place to be buried
A place to be buried close to people can be found on squares, parks, gardens, churchyards and public gardens - in our towns and villages.
Playgrounds in former housing estates can now be replaced with small-scale cemeteries.
Space can be saved in parks, but also on squares etc.
Not only to bring burials closer to the living but also to increase the effectiveness of the available greenery and the greenery still to be created in town and villages so that these will not be overrun by the asphalt jungle. Respect for the human monument.
Burials
Next to each other, in a deep grave they will rest eternally, they will never get to know their neighbours. Visitors are received in the wind and the rain. A little further on, a new neighbour is moved in. Visitors take their places in a hierarchically determined order. The wife, the children, the father and mother, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues, acquaintances and sympathizers. Everyone is acquainted with sorrow but no one feels free to let it out, the highest on the hierarchical ladder excepted. They all have a right to sorrow but do they know the deceased? The same stone. They have lost their way.
The inequality, the hierarchy, creating distance, the wind and the rain, the visitors, the neighbours - all these make the emotion palpable. To us, it all seems perfectly normal. Nobody seems to find this situation strange at all. But this paradox does tell us how we don’t want to be buried.
The Tumulus
The solution lies the tumulus: small-scale burial in the midst of life.
Its shape and its height create a feeling of equality and seclusion. The tumulus is a place where you can rest and take a rest, take a stroll and have a seat, cry, laugh and remember.
Joined burial mounds would allow you to take a stroll over and amongst the graves. A ramble, a walk in a park-like landscape.
The tumulus could be in the woods, on asphalt, on a square, in a garden, on the beach, in an open space between houses – part of the social sphere.
The tumulus is round; everyone is equal and able to say their farewells – standing at the edge or in the centre of the mound, the deceased in its hub.
The burial mound offers protection, a family grave, a single grave, adjacent, on top of each other, together in the same niche, a protective environment in which to sit and remember the deceased.
The tumulus tells the tale of all those lying within. Not only names and dates: stories and anecdotes tell us something about the deceased. The tumulus is not a place where people are confronted by their fear of death; it leaves life as it is.
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