ABSTRACT
Stones, rocks, brick, and plaster have been hauled, carved, piled, and spread in such vast quantities to erect monumental structures to the deceased that I am tempted to refer to our species as death obsessed. This ancient fixation was a universal practice. We are so accustomed to looking back to times past, with their cities crowned by monumental mortuary architecture, tales about the speaking idols, and visitations from the dead, that we are blind to some very intriguing historical patterns. Merely attributing such practices to ancient superstitions is intellectual evasion. Surely there is more to the story. Of course, we can see similar behavior in modern times when we look at cemeteries and the funeral industry. However, unlike ancient civilizations, no society today is organized around mobilizing their workforce to build massive funerary edifices dedicated to their dead. We need to explain why.
