Archeologists look at six or more criteria to determine whether a grave is Christian or pagan. First, Christian burials were almost without exception inhumations, that is, the body was not burned before it was buried. Cremation was taboo among early medieval Christians. For instance, around 780 Charlemagne legislated the death penalty for those burning their dead. He did so because cremation was intimately associated with paganism. This does not necessarily mean, however, that every inhumation is Christian, for pagans also sometimes buried their dead without burning them.