taphology

noun

1. (uncountable)The study of graves and burial.

   “So much has been written upon the subject of this direful malady, a disease which, up to the present time, has baffled the most skillful followers of the Esculapian art, that it seems unnecessary to enter into detail describing the character of the tubercular bacillus, or the numerous failures for destroying this germ, or the taphology developed by the action of these germs upon the human organism.”

   “I hereby challenge Prof. Hagamon to meet me in any hall and debate the following questions: ASTROLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, TAPHOLOGY, TAPHORNOTATHOLOGY, or anything else he chooses.”

   “K. P. Gerhard Holm, visiting professor, agronomy; Howard A. Gilbert, assistant professor, economics; Mington Lai, postdoctoral fellow, plant taphology; Norma Seerley, instructor, rural sociology; John G. Nickum, assistant professor, wildlife management.”

   “The habit of treating the dead in this way should be seen as a specific sphere of human activity, taphology; we should note its universality and the presence of its own particular means and ends.[…]Unintentional burials continued to persist when the practice of deliberate burial had appeared. It is therefore necessary to establish the dividing line between taphonomy and taphology, and to further define the main tendencies governing the act of deliberate burial.”