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Re:Undying Dread: A 400-Year-Old Corpse, Locked to Its Grave by compiler-guy on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @12:52PM (#37484126)
Even in modern times, it is difficult to tell when someone is actually, really dead. In older times, without stethoscopes, heart monitors, and other modern inventions, someone coming back from the grave was common enough that rumors around it were somewhat plausible.

But even modern medicine screws it up. Just this year: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65886245.amp

And here is a somewhat interesting article about the history of the problem. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/07/final-forms

Re:Undying Dread: A 400-Year-Old Corpse, Locked to Its Grave by DonaldFisk on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @03:01PM (#37486124)
Prof. Jan Bondeson wrote a book called Buried Alive (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buried-Alive-Terrifying-History-Pri...). I have a copy. He concluded that almost all historical accounts of premature burial could be explained in other ways, or were unreliable. There were, however, a handful of confirmed cases of people being rescued from premature burial and removed from their grave, only to die shortly afterwards. Around 200 years ago in Germany, many deceased were placed in Leichenhäusen until decomposition started, to ensure they weren't prematurely buried. Not one person woke up.

Of course, for obvious reasons it's impossible to be sure nobody was buried alive, but if anyone was, the air supply in their coffin wouldn't last longer than about an hour.