40d:Coffin

Coffins are used for the burial of dwarves or their cherished pets. While it is possible for the less caring fortress supervisor to simply designate a graveyard and have surviving dwarves sling their comrades into those, some prefer to construct coffins. They can be built from stone at a Mason's workshop, wood at a Carpenter, metal at a Forge or, for the truly decadent, glass at a Glass Furnace. They are listed in the build menu as Burial Receptacle n.

Providing a casket for your deceased dwarves is not simply an aesthetic decision. Relatives (or, in the case of pets, owners) of the dead will have unhappy thoughts generated if their loved has just been slung in a graveyard to rot. Also, rotting dwarves, like anything else, produce miasma which is never nice. It should be noted that even if a dwarf is placed in a coffin, they will still generate clouds of miasma as they rot so wherever you site your burial chamber, be sure to put doors on it. As of version 0.27.169.33b, coffins now have lids on them, so there is no need to worry about noxious purple fumes escaping from the rotting corpse of the departed dwarf.

While tombs can be designated from coffins, only some nobles specifically demand them. The more self-important the noble, the more ornate the tomb must be, naturally.