The burial vault or burial liner is designed to prevent the weight of earth or heavy cemetery maintenance equipment from collapsing the coffin beneath. Coffin collapse will cause the ground to sink and settle, marring the appearance of the cemetery and making it harder to maintain. Burial vaults originally emerged as a means of ensuring that grave robbers could not easily access a coffin and remove valuables, clothing, or even bodies from the coffin. Early vaults were made of wood (the "rough box"), although by the middle of the 1800s brick, iron and later steel vaults were used. By the late 1800s, the fashion of burying the deceased with jewelry lost favor. However, the value of burial vaults in ensuring that the ground did not settle over graves was seen, and burial vaults began to be more widely used. By the early part of the 20th century, concrete (and, later, reinforced concrete) vaults became more common.