Between about February and October 1828, William Burke and William Hare murdered sixteen people in Edinburgh and sold the bodies to Robert Knox, a anatomist whose lectures drew large crowds of students. Edinburgh was then a leading centre of anatomical study, but Scots law allowed bodies for dissection only from people who died in prison, by suicide, or who were foundlings and orphans. That left a severe shortage, and it fuelled grave robbing by so-called resurrection men. Protective measures like mortsafes, iron cages over graves, made the shortage worse and pushed men like Burke and Hare toward murder. Their victims were paid for rather than dug up, which is why the case shocked the public. The killings led directly to the Anatomy Act of 1832, which legalised donated and unclaimed bodies for medical research.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.