Category:Burial grounds

A burial ground is any area of land where people have been buried or interred in more than one grave. The land may have been used on an ad hoc basis or it may have been officially designated for burials of members of a community by some local authority. Private family graveyards may also be found, particularly in Japan.

The most common type of designated burial ground across the world is probably the cemetery, although in largely Christian countries, churchyards used to be the major, sometimes the only, officially recognised burial grounds between approximately the 11th and the 19th centuries. An archaeological burial ground consisting of a number of tombs of the early historic or prehistoric period is referred to by the Greek (later adopted into Latin) term of a Necropolis.

For more information on the differences between the various types of burial ground, please see the Grave gallery.