The ceremonies and rituals practiced in antiquity were often centred on the important rites of passage in life: birth, marriage and death. Elaborate funerary rites transferred the deceased to the spirit world. For instance, bodies in Mesopotamia were often sealed in ceramic jars, or wrapped in matting, before being buried alongside vessels filled with blood and water, to ensure that their spirits remained well-fed. There is evidence to suggest that these were broken during the ceremony and also that torches were lit around the grave to protect the living from the contamination of the dead.
