Part of an iron mortsafe. Mortsafes were invented in 1816 as a way of preventing grave robbers from digging up recent burials for anatomical research. These safes were essentially heavy iron cages that were placed over a grave and padlocked. They could be reused on a different grave after a few weeks, when a body was too decomposed to be at risk. From St Mary's Church Grandtully, Perthshire.