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Pyre

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A pyre is a structure, such as a mound of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. An early form of cremation, a body or bodies is placed upon the pyre and the pyre is set on fire. In a Viking funeral the pyre was built on a ship, which was then floated out to sea as it burned. Pyres are uncommon in the Western world in modern times and have been replaced by indoor cremation in a crematorium.

Other uses

Pyre is also the name of an underground literature/art group in the mid 1990s.

See also

External link

 


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