A copy of part of the Dead Sea Scrolls is displayed at the “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times” exhibition at Discovery Times Square on December 16, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Mortsafes were contraptions designed to protect graves from disturbance. Resurrectionists had supplied the schools of anatomy in Scotland since the early 18th century. This was due to the necessity for medical students to learn anatomy by attending dissections of human subjects, which was frustrated by the very limited allowance of dead bodies – for example the corpses of executed criminals – granted by the government, which controlled the supply.

Demonstrators wear skull masks during an anti government protest, as Chile's President Michelle Bachelet delivers a speech inside the National Congress, in Valparaiso city, Chile May 21, 2016. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A voodoo believer, dressed as "Gede", a spirit of voodoo, sits on the cross of Baron Samdi during celebrations at the cemetery of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 1, 2016. Voodoo believers and devotees offer candles, alcohol and food. The Day of the Dead is celebrated on the first two days of November during All Saints and All Souls Day. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

Actors wrapped in blankets react at the set of the post-apocalyptic movie “Zombie Era” at an abandoned factory complex in Langfang, Hebei province, China December 16, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Partially constructed notched burial plots are seen at the construction site of an underground tunnel designated for traditional Jewish burial at the Givat Shaul cemetery, on May 14, 2015, in Jerusalem, Israel. Underground cemetery being built by the Israeli Burial Society in Jerusalem due to a decrease in available land for traditional Jewish burials. (Photo by David Vaaknin/The Washington Post)

For the Torajan people of Indonesia, death is part of a spiritual journey: families keep the mummified remains of their deceased relatives in their homes for years – and traditionally invite them to join for lunch on a daily basis – before they are eventually buried. Here: Todeng died in 2009. A young relative of his, Sam, lights him a cigarette and changes his glasses. (Photo by Claudio Sieber Photography/The Guardian)