Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio:

The task was simple, slowly uncover the tomb floor, and sort through the bones contained within. After lowering myself into the tomb once again, I was able to spend countless hours sitting with the dead, who last had a human touch them when they were first placed in this tomb over 1500 years ago. while certain parts of the body remained in tack, others were fragile, to the point of literally crumbling into dust in my hands. I couldn't help but think about the fact that I was literally surrounded by death, an old death, that was now in my clothes, skin, and inhaled in my lungs. The tomb wasn't so bad, it was so hot outside that even though it was like a sauna inside, the sun wasn't a factor, and it didnt seem so dreary. But it is difficult not to ponder ones mortality when handling the basic elements of it. Although this is based on science, I did feel bad that we had stripped them of their jewelry, and rings. Stealing from the dead, and now I was trying to sort out thier bones, and was instead organizing them all based on size, so that 7 bodies became a mixture of pieces with no ability to differentiate. Taking the time to think about how their families grieved for them as they put them in this family tomb over 15oo years ago, to then have me sift through thier bones, made me feel slightly uneasy, but one has to rationalize, and I know that their is really nothing to be uneasy about, and that the life cycle takes us from the ground, and places us back there. I may be breathing it in in greater quantities, but we all breath it in. I finished placing all of the bones in boxes and bags, and tenderly caressed the bag, as i left it to be picked up by the truck.