The change of the body, which takes place after death, has always required a swift removal of the dead body. In early burial grounds the bodies were covered with stones or tree branches. As the digging tools were developed, it became more usual to bury the dead in the ground.
Grave-finds from the late Stone Age show that they had begun to burn the deceased. The body was not fully combusted and the remains were buried. Since it was common belief that the soul was attached to the body and that dead were going to haunt the living, cremation was a way of stopping resurrection. During the Bronze Age cremation became more common and urns were used for storing the ash.
Embalming in ancient Egypt also shows the belief in the mutual connection of soul and body. However, the ancient Egyptian religion does not indicate any fear of the dead haunting the living since the world of the dead was clearly separated from their world and the embalming made the continuity of life in the Kingdom of the dead possible. The soul was mobile but preferred to “live” in the body and therefore the body should not be destroyed.
Judaism had a similar belief. They thought that the existence of the soul was highly dependent on the fact that the body bad to be kept intact. In the Old Testament there are examples of burning of bodies but then it is practised either as a special punishment or cremation of highly respected people.
When the Romans persecuted the Christians, they burnt their bodies to mock their belief in resurrection but when later the people in power became Christianised, cremation was accepted even if it never became common as only the rich could afford it due to the shortage of fire wood.
In India people think that life is an illusion and that the world of the spirit is the real world. The body is a temple for the soul, which is reincarnated from body to body until it is eventually set free. In order to hasten this liberation of the soul the body shall be burnt.
In the end of the 18th century, the sanitary conditions in the cities were unbearable and the interest in cremation awoke again. The old way with an open fire did however horrify people. In the middle of the 19th century construction of a furnace was started and at the World Fair in 1873 the Italian Brunetti presented a, not very successful, cremation furnace.
In Dresden, in 1874, the first contemporary cremation was made in a furnace constructed by Siemens. The combustion was complete and the only remains were white ash. Already this furnace of Siemens did follow the main principles, which are still valid, of complete combustion of the body.
In Sweden people showed an interest in cremation at an early stage. Lt was first mentioned in 1837. In spite of the doubtfulness of the church and without the permission of the authorities, a Swedish association “Svenska Likbränningsföreningen” in 1887 made a cremation in a furnace built in Sweden. On December 15, 1888, the Swedish government legalised cremation and in 1909 the North Crematorium in Stockholm was inaugurated, which must be seen as an ecclesiastical breakthrough for the cremation movement in Sweden.
In 1927 Sweden bad a liberal legislation regarding cremation. It was now Possible for the family to decide about the burial custom. During the thirties, cremation really bad a break-through in Sweden and at that time the origin of the TABO furnace was developed. After World War II the frequency of cremation in Sweden has in creased continuously. Already in the seventies, more than 50% of all dead was cremated, which means that cremation already was more usual than burials in coffins also on a national basis.
TABO equipment for crematoriums 
The burning of the deceased was already done by the Etruskans, who passed it on to the Greek and Romans. Christianity denounced it as paganistic. In 785, Karl the Great banned cremation, punsihable by the death penalty, and cremation stopped for close to a thousand years. In the 1600s and 1700s, the big European towns became real metropolitan areas, which caused problems in cemeteries. In some cemeteries, people were buried in mass graves, which were held open for days. Because many of the cemeteries were located in residential areas, they were thought to be the reason behind the frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases. The discovery of microorganisms proved that cemeteries were in part to blame for the spreading of diseases through underground water. The process of cremation again became actual. The only remaining problem was the lack of an esthetically acceptable way of burning the body. Thanks in large part to German and Italian engineers, the first crematorium retort was built in 1870, and so the practical ways of cremation were born. The first contemporary cremation retort was built in Milan in 1876.
This surely makes perfect sense to me!!