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Death, a down-to-earth matter
In this month of July 2026, in the midst of a 37 °C heatwave, a rather unusual team is hard at work under a blazing sun, right next to the municipal cemetery at Les Ulis, in the Paris region. There, on a vacant lot surrounded by plant waste, around a dozen scientists and members of the Humo Sapiens association dressed in coveralls are digging up earth with trowels. Over the week, the team have excavated some 10m3 of soil. The buried treasure they're looking for is somewhat unusual and turns out to consist of decomposed sheep carcasses.
But let's rewind to 26 June 2025. As part of a participatory research project1, an entomologist at Université de Lille (northern France) called Damien Charabidzé2 obtained permission from the Les Ulis cemetery to use the land adjoining the burial ground for an unprecedented scientific experiment. He and his team laid sheep carcasses, each weighing around 35 kg, in eight separate pits. Half of them were placed directly in the earth, while the other half were first surrounded with shredded plant matter. The aim of the experiment was to test a process called terramation3, a technique authorised in North America, but still in its infancy in Europe.
Decomposition or saponification
A year later, the exhumation confirmed the method's viability. In the pits filled with shredded plant material, the carcasses had completely decomposed. The organic matter was no longer identifiable, having been transformed into humus, while the pit gave off no particular odour. Only the bones remained.
In the other pit, the result was quite different. "The carcasses were foul-smelling and had hardly decomposed at all," Charabidzé recalls. "In one year, they had barely lost a quarter of their mass."
Worse still, they had reached a stage called “saponification”, where fats turn into a kind of wax (in fact, soap), which halts decay. "The flesh practically stops decomposing," Charabidzé continues. "And nothing grows above the pit."
“Waxy corpses” and cemetery management
Humans are affected in exactly the same way as the sheep. In the past few years, the mainstream media have been drawing attention to “waxy corpses” that gravediggers regularly exhume when burial plot leases expire4. Just like the sheep at Les Ulis, these human remains are victims of saponification.
"We don't know to what extent this natural phenomenon is exacerbated by embalming fluids, by the ingestion of food packed with preservatives during life, or by the deterioration of the soil in cemeteries," the entomologist explains.
Macabre news stories aside, these waxy corpses have a significant impact on cemetery management. "Gravediggers are obliged to re-bury the bodies if they haven't decomposed," he adds. "This results in an increasing shortage of burial space in graveyards in large cities."
Charabidzé gives a few examples. To cope with the saturation in cemeteries in Bordeaux (southwestern France), the municipal authorities have reduced the duration of burial leases from 15 to 10 years and restricted the number of permanent leases.
In Lille, the city council is planning to create a new burial ground by the end of its current term of office. "But where, given the price of land?" the researcher wonders. "Will older people still be able to continue to pay their respects to the dead if it means a 45-minute bus ride to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city?"
Compost-like
In this context, Charabidzé's scientific experiment could provide a practical solution to overcrowded city cemeteries by the introduction of a new funeral rite, terramation. Unlike burial, which slows down the decomposition of corpses, this aims to accelerate the natural breakdown process by placing the body directly in the ground, surrounded by shredded plant material.
"It's the same principle as composting," the entomologist explains. "You need to strike a balance between a nitrogen-rich material to be broken down (in this case, a corpse) and carbon (wood shavings) through which oxygen can circulate." This is a funeral rite that can satisfy both spiritual aspirations and the need to save energy, unlike cremation and its ovens heated to 850 °C.
However, Charabidzé downplays the environmental argument: "In terms of a person's lifetime carbon footprint, cremation doesn't account for much, it's the equivalent of a return flight from Paris to New York. On the other hand, it is the symbolic value of the rite that matters most, because with terramation, the body is returned to the natural cycle of life. Many people express a desire to 'become a tree in a forest once again' through this ritual."
Towards the legalisation of terramation
At present, worldwide, only some dozen US states, together with the Land of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, (and recently, the Australian state of New South Wales – Ed’s note) allow terramation. However, all these authorisations are based on private initiatives, rather than on a scientific approach. From this perspective, the experiment at Les Ulis is a world first. This isn't really so surprising since, although the idea of terramation goes back a long way, science has so far turned its back on the subject and on funerary practices in general.
"Researchers seem to be reluctant to get involved," Charabidzé believes. "No one wants to take a stance on the subject of bodily decomposition, in case they offend someone."
This self-censorship has very real consequences. "Outside of the humanities and social sciences, funerary practices represent a huge gap in our knowledge," the researcher says. “We don't know anything about what goes on beneath the ground, be it the decomposition of bodies or soil pollution caused by embalming."
Necrophagous insects
Charabidzé is well aware of this gap given his own academic background, for what led him to take an interest in funerary practices was his childhood fascination with insects. "One day, my parents invited a scientist friend," he recounts. "Listening to him, I discovered that you could get paid to breed insects and train them as part of experiments. And I thought to myself: 'That isn't just a job, it's what I'd really love to do!'"
It was while he was studying entomology, during an internship in a research laboratory specialising in necrophagous insects, at Université de Lille's Faculty of Medicine, that he discovered this fascinating world. "The results of our research in forensic entomology could help track down a criminal or prove someone's innocence. Research doesn't get any more practical than that!" he smiles.
Expertise for the public authorities
However, research into funerary practices is still in its infancy. And, beyond the development of this field, there lies the prospect of producing sound scientific expertise for the public authorities, as demonstrated by the experiment at Les Ulis.
"We are currently working with the French national council for funeral services (CNOF), an advisory body responsible for assisting the public authorities with the drafting of funeral regulations," Charabidzé points out. This makes it a key player in overseeing changes in funerary practices in France.
The subject is decidedly in tune with the times: in June 2026, in response to a question from a senator, the government stated5 that "the administration has teamed up with a group of researchers" – namely, the team led by Charabidzé – in order "to identify and summarise the ideas and practices of other countries with regard to new burial methods".
See also
- 1. As part of the ANR project « Pratique funéraire du compostage : la recherche-action participative à l’appui d'une transition sociétale – F-Compost » ('Composting as a funeral practice: participatory action research in support of societal transition – F-Compost’)
- 2. Centre d’histoire judiciaire (CHJ – CNRS / Université de Lille).
- 3. Also called “natural organic reduction”, or “human composting”.
- 4. See for example: https://tinyurl.com/3pss2hue
- 5. https://tinyurl.com/terramation-senat (in French).
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