Cremation first appears in the Levant in the Neolithic, but declines with Semitic settlement of the area in the 3rd millennium. Cremation was widely regarded as barbaric in the Ancient Near East, to be used only by necessity in times of plague. The Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead, and the Zoroastrian Persians punished capitally even attempted cremation, with special regulations for the purification of fire so desecrated. |
