I went to one burial in my village in Enugu State in Eastern part of Nigeria during the weekend. There is one thing I noticed which is "Burying a dead person inside coffin "6ft" down. After they've might finished burying the coffin, I rushed immediately and asked an elderly person there present and he said that:
A body left on the surface uncovered can decompose very quickly( less than a week), but not as fast as it can if immersed in water. It's dependent on oxygen and water content levels.

Buried, it will take considerably longer. Depth of burial has a direct correlation on decomposition time. The deeper the longer, in general, it takes.

What's the importance of that? Time is only relevant to those still alive. People who loved the deceased person/pet like to remember them as they were when alive. So the tendency is to want to keep their loved ones bodies as ‘lifelike’ as possible, for as long as possible.

As to why six feet? It's simply extremely difficult to make a hole that is deeper than that without special equipment.

;DI went to one burial in my village in Enugu State in Eastern part of Nigeria during the weekend. There is one thing I noticed which is "Burying a dead person inside coffin "6ft" down. After they've might finished burying the coffin, I rushed immediately and asked an elderly person there present and he said that:
A body left on the surface uncovered can decompose very quickly( less than a week), but not as fast as it can if immersed in water. It's dependent on oxygen and water content level's.

Buried, it will take considerably longer. Depth of burial has a direct correlation on decomposition time. The deeper the longer, in general, it take's.

What's the importance of that? Time is only relevant to those still alive. People who loved the deceased person/pet like to remember them as they were when alive. So the tendency is to want to keep their loved ones bodies as ‘lifelike’ as possible, for as long as possible.

As to why six feet? It's simply extremely difficult to make a hole that is deeper than that without special equipment.