Gravedigger - Hakahorinin

Japanese: 墓掘人 - はかほりにん

A person whose occupation is digging graves. The custom of burying corpses rather than leaving them lying around is as old as humanity itself. Pollen found near prehistoric human bones suggests that flowers were offered at burials in ancient times. Although it is natural that the making of mummies in Egypt was left to professionals, it is unclear when gravediggers became a specialized profession. When early Christians in Rome buried their companions in the catacombs, gravediggers called fossors were treated as a kind of clergyman, and there were various occupations such as the lecticarius, who dug out stones, the libitinarius, who purified and buried the corpses, the copiata, who carved inscriptions and painted images, and the decanus.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

墓の穴を掘ることを業とする人。死体を放置せず埋葬する習慣は人類とともに古い。先史時代の人骨のそばから発見された花粉によって，古くから埋葬に際し花がささげられたことも推定されている。エジプトのミイラ製作が専門職に任されたのは当然としても，土葬の墓掘職がいつごろから分業の専門職になったかは不明である。ローマで初期のキリスト教徒がカタコンベで仲間を埋葬したころにはフォソルfossorと呼ばれる墓掘人は聖職者の一種として扱われ，石を掘り出すレクティカリウスlecticarius，死体を清め埋葬するリビティナリウスlibitinarius，碑文を刻んだり図像を描くコピアタcopiata，デカヌスdecanusなどの職種があった。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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