"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and the other begins?" —Edgar Allan Poe
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Theories claim that buildings were burned ritually, regularly and deliberately in order to mark the end of the “life” of the house. This indicates that theories believed in reincarnation, in that the “soul” of the old, burned house would be “reborn” into the new.