"Burial in unmarked graves seems to have been common practice for most people throughout the history of humankind."
Not in the 'civilised West' Joe, and certainly not in Catholic Ireland, where ritual burial has been a psychological and spiritual necessity and had been part of Catholic life for as long as Catholicism has held sway here."
The above is a bit of a misleading simplification. The right of burial does not automatically carry the right to erect a headstone or it's equivalent,and that is apart from suicides, bastards,paupers and unbaptized babies.

burial laws