Early Burial Customs
The ancient burial customs are evidence of an early belief in future existence, and that not only human beings but inanimate objects have souls.
It was considered necessary that the departed should be accompanied not only by his weapons and personal belongings, but also by attendants or slaves, who were immolated so that they could continue their ministrations in the future life.
Taboo
The reverence with which burial places were regarded gave rise to the belief in the spirits of the dead as guardians, and this survives at the present day in the mysterious custom of “Taboo,” a Polynesian term which means “consecrated” or “set apart.”
It really has a double meaning: to consecrate, and to insure penalty, whereby dwellings are abandoned after the death of their owners in the supposition that they are sacred to the spirits of the departed.
Roman Lares
The Lares of the Romans were domestic or public, the domestic Lares were the souls of the virtuous ancestors exalted to the rank of protectors. They took the form of images like dogs set behind the Entrance, or in the Lararium or shrine.
There were also public Lares, whose province was the protection of streets and roads.
This belief in the dead as guardian spirits accounts for a form of sacrifice in which the victims were buried under foundations, a custom modified in later times to the sacrifice of animals. It survives at the present day in burying current coins at the ceremony of laying the foundation-stone in public buildings.