The Columbarium: Are pigeons the official mascot of death?

The Columbarium is a free, weekly newsletter where the history of death and dying meets practical advice about the same. Enjoy this issue from the archive—and if you like it, consider signing up!

Hey. Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, and it means a lot that so many of you have signed up to let me tell you about death and dying on a weekly basis. 

But, like, in a fun way. 

Speaking of the newsletter: you may be wondering why I called it The Columbarium. Aside from the cute pun on column (as in a newspaper column—get it?), I thought it was the perfect metaphor for what I’m trying to achieve.

Whether you realize it or not, you’ve seen a columbarium. You can find them in most cemeteries—large walls, buildings, or other structures lined with niches to store cremated remains. In modern cemeteries, the niches are usually covered with a plaque listing all the same information you might find on a gravestone. Name of the deceased, dates of birth and death, maybe an illustration or an epitaph. 

My grandparents Carl and Phyllis ended up side by side in a columbarium—take a look at my grandpa’s spot on Find a Grave. Columbariums have niches, this newsletter has niches. It seemed like a good fit.

But why are they called columbariums? That’s a fancy Latin word, right? Does the etymology have to do with bones or something?

Well, the root word, columba, is Latin, but it’s hardly fancy: it means pigeon.

When the ancient Romans began building columbariums, the structures reminded them of the dovecotes where pigeons lived—tiny niches in a tiny house. So they borrowed the name for where they stored cremated human remains, and it stuck. Nowadays the pigeon comparison works particularly well, since columbariums evoke the tightly packed apartment buildings of major cities where pigeons crowd the rooftops. 

There are worse things your dead loved ones could be compared to than a pigeon. Pigeons are resilient. And you must admit, their shiny green and purple feathers are awfully pretty when they catch the sunlight. 

Want to spend eternity with neighbors in a columbarium? You’ll have to pay separately—a niche is not included in the cost of cremation. According to cremation.com, a typical niche costs somewhere between $750 and $2,800, depending on where you live. 

Pricey pigeons, indeed. More about methods of disposition here.