Cremation Urn found at Lake Murray

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Timeliner

Contributor
Messages
1,849
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Location
Schicke Point, Texas
# of dives
200 - 499
We were at Lake Murray, Ok today. 'Found access to a spot I normally could never get to. The water is the lowest I've ever seen it. We took advantage of the new entry point. Usually, it's a cliff with the water at the bottom and no way to get down and back up safely. Today was different so we went down to scope it out.
Where there is usually many feet of water there was a Cremation Urn with the ashes and bone shards still in a bag inside......CRrrrrrrrrazy !!!!!
I took them back to where we were kitting up and had the traditional Bone Ceremony.

(You do know about the Bone Ceremony right ?)

We have no clue who the remains were in life but we called him "Walter"
We placed him in deep water when we did our dive. :wink:

Want to see the Video? I'll put it up later or just go to my Facebook page I have them there.
 
LOL.....good to finally run into you today, Frank....even if we were getting out pretty much as you guys were getting ready to get in.

I'll have to see this Bone Ceremony for myself one day.

Take care.
 
It was good diving though. This was the first time I have been to Murray in about 13 months or so.
 
Friends,
I'm guessing you did not know this, but disturbing the resting spot of the dead is a cultural taboo in the americas.

It's a sign of respect for the dead to visit the dead, but leave remains undisturbed.

Unless you are an archeologist, you might consider replacing the urn and remains to it's resting place.

Dive safe!

---------- Post added November 25th, 2012 at 09:58 AM ----------

I see that you placed the bones back in it's resting place. Cheers.

We aren't in asia. Seems odd to sort the bones from the ashes of a stranger, an act traditionally done by the family members.

Seems you were acting with the best of intentions. I would have done something different, but thanks for showing the dead respect in your best tradition.

Dive safe.
 
Frank, if any swamp diver was to find a cremation urn with the resident still inside, it would definitely be you. Next time you're in the Lake Stillhouse / Lake Travis area, give me a hollar and we'll make a few dives.
 
A family member probably took it to the lake at the request of the deceased and dropped it in the water from the cliff, not knowing that it would be exposed in a drought. Good for you taking it to deeper water.

We had a family friend who wanted his ashes spread on a farm we've farmed for the family for decades. We had to lead them to the farm, make sure they knew how to get out, and then we left them to their duties. Of course they left ashes, not an urn.
 
Antattack, Timeliner will probably explain, but until he does, I'll take a crack at it.
I doubt very seriously that he seperated (or even opened the bag containing the ashes and shards) the bones of the deceased from the ashes or urn. The "bone ceremony" of which he speaks is a little tradition he and his diving friends perform before a day of diving (He says the bones direct them in the direction they should go for their dives). It's done with what I believe to be chicken bones and maybe a few other interesting items. It's for fun and levity. I cannot believe that Frank would treat those found remains with anything other than respect and courtesy, and I concur with DandyDon that it was a good thing to re-locate them to deeper water. Most likely, the one who deposited them at the previous location didn't anticipate the extremely low lake level now being experienced.
 
It is also possible it could have been a family pet...err not human. We had our dog cremated not long ago.
 

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