Gravestones

The Brothertown Indian community formed in the late eighteenth century when Christian factions of several Algonquian tribes from Rhode Island, Connecticut, and coastal New York moved west together in hopes of escaping the land politics and corrupting influences of colonial culture on the East Coast. The community settled in central New York State for a time, but relocated once again to current-day Brothertown, Wisconsin in the 1830s. Established in 2006, the Brothertown Archaeology Project explores Brothertown history from the perspective of collaborative historical archaeology. Data collected from Brothertown cemeteries during the first few seasons of the project offer valuable perspectives on Brothertown commemoration practices and the changes they underwent between 1780 and 1910. When compared with larger trends in Native American and Euroamerican commemoration, these data yield new insights into history, memory, and materiality at Brothertown and speak to the politics of post-Columbian North America, both past and present.

L’Invention des morts explore les relations que les Mongols entretiennent au quotidien avec leurs défunts. S’appuyant sur une enquête menée chez les pasteurs nomades Dörvöd et dans la capitale Ulaanbaatar de 1999 à 2005, Grégory Delaplace montre que les morts sont au centre de pratiques discrètes, par lesquelles éleveurs et citadins embrassent ou rejettent des idéologies modernistes et socialisent un environnement peuplé de « maîtres » invisibles. L’étude successive des sépultures, des histoires de fantômes et des usages sociaux de la photographie conduit le lecteur à travers les multiples procédés et petites trouvailles tactiques par lesquels les morts sont « inventés » comme les partenaires de relations formelles ouintimes qui subvertissent les cadres institutionnels imposés par l’État et le clergé. En décrivant à travers des matériaux originaux l’art de vivre avec les morts dans la Mongolie d’aujourd’hui, ce livre ne comble pas seulement un manque dans la littérature ethnographique régionale, il propose une méthode renouvelée pour l’anthropologie.

In this work one hundred twenty-four securely classified grave reliefs mainly figural representations from Cyprus from the Archaic to the Roman period were examined. Plain inscribed grave stelae or aniconic cippi were not included. Despite the relatively small number of grave reliefs found, a large variety of stelae forms, figural scenes and motifs is revealed, demonstrating the fusion of diverse influences from neighbouring cultures with the unique local character thus requiring an independent approach was to study these grave reliefs.

The present work is the slightly revised version of my dissertation, which was accepted in summer 2002 by the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, Germany.

The study of cemeteries, with their accumulated material culture, is a popular topic in historical archaeology, eliciting a number of methodological approaches. This paper describes the application of a phenomenological approach, best known previously in archaeology for its use in prehistoric landscape
studies, to a historical public cemetery. The plan and layout of the colonial section (1837–1900) of Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery is analysed within the context of nineteenth-century visitation patterns, prevailing attitudes to death and burial in Britain and their influence on South Australian colonial society, to consider what factors influenced the layout, selection, placement, accumulation and display of material culture within
the cemetery. The study concludes that beyond the immediate practicality of the deceased’s disposal, the colonial cemetery landscape developed during a time of more regulated cemetery visitation, was intended as a place of movement and experience demonstrating private and public expressions of religious and social beliefs to the observer. Its conscious construction was designed to project a sensory experience of prevailing attitudes to death, burial and society in the nineteenth century. The visitor immersed within this landscape,
was engaged in a reflexive sensory dialogue through the mediums of space and material culture. This experiential communication could invoke the power of memory to conjure the deceased’s persona, invite contemplation of personal loss, prevailing community attitudes and religious beliefs, and reaffirm and perpetuate social worldviews.

Ancestor memorial rituals, including mortuary ceremonies for the dead, periodic grave visits, practices at home altars, and the like, constitute the most popular form of religious participation in contemporary Japan, encompassing an increasingly diverse number of ritual forms.  This article examines a common theoretical framework used to describe this diversity by categorizing rituals in terms of continuity vs. change or tradition vs. invention. This article proposes an alternate framework for understanding processes leading to the transformation of rituals like ancestor memorial.  This framework is centered around the process of repetition and its role in the production of the symbolic. Drawing on the theoretical synthesis of Bourdieu and Lacan proposed by Steinmetz (2006), I argue that one benefit of looking at ritual from the perspective of repetition is the manner in which it highlights the role of symbolic capital as it impacts both the psychological experience of grief as well as social relationships based on mutual interdependence and generational succession. From the perspective of repetition, changes in ritual formed over time can be traced to actors’ desires for preserving continuity of an underlying symbolic system, making it difficult to separate the ideas of change and continuity within the realm of practice.  I illustrate the ways that this perspective gives insight into some forms of ritual memorial strategies within the context of the lived experiences of Japanese adults.  Ancestor memorial, seen as an act of repetition, thus connects cognition and practice, pre-figuring both change and resilience while avoiding some of potential pitfalls of comparative studies based on limited categories of religious behaviors or institutions.

The eighteenth century gravemarkers in Monmouth County illustrate the county as an agricultural periphery of the greater New England trade network. The iconography is dominated by mortality images throughout the century which is in contrast to neighboring study areas where mortality imagery is out of fashion by the middle of the century. The gravemarkers also show how the county was connected to the wider colonial markets where stones were purchased from a wide suite of available carvers, along with a probable local carver working on blanks imported from northern New Jersey. In the end, the choice of gravemarker icon and carver is best connected to family choices within broader social fashion or religious ideology.

Decorated gravestones in the villages of the people of Koçgiri Tribe located in Develi and Sarız districts of Kayseri constitute the subject of this study. Sarız, one of the largest districts of Kayseri, has
42 villages. It shows a cosmopolitan structure consisting of Circassians, Afshars and Kurds. With the
settlement of Circassian emigrants in the last quarter of the 19th century, Circassian villages started
to be established. In the second half of the same century, Kurds from Koçgiri tribe settled in the
region. Another ethnic group brought by the same century is the settlement of the nomadic Afshars
in the region. In this century, Sarız was the sub-district of Aziziye (Pınarbaşı). Develi, which is one
of the biggest districts of Kayseri, has 75 villages converted into neighbourhood in 2014. Gümüşali,
Sancakağıl, Altısöğüt and Ördekli villages of Sarız are among the villages inhabited by members
of the Koçgiri tribe. Develi’s Karapınar and Derebaşı Villages are also among the places where the
Koçgiri tribe is located. These villages were founded by people who belong to the Koçgiri tribe who
settled in the region in the second half of the 19th century and who have Alawi faith. Koçgiri tribe is a tribe spread to Tunceli, Erzincan and Sivas. Figured gravestones in the villages where the members
of the Koçgiri tribe settled in Sarız are the subjects of this paper. Among the decorations are man on
a horse, birds, architectural depictions, moon-star motifs, tree of life, ewer and coffee sets, as well
as geometric compositions. These ornaments include designs that continue the Turkish tradition of
Central Asia. In this paper, instead of introducing gravestones in catalogues, an evaluation of cultural
continuity will be made through the repeated examples of these compositions in Kayseri in the 19-
20th Centuries, which spread to different regions with the conquest of Anatolia.

The ancient city of Pednelissos is located within the borders of Antalya province and it is possible to suggest that it was inhabited at least from the beginning of the Hellenistic Period. There are three figures on the grave stele from Pednelissos. To the left, Hermes dressed in chlamys is leaning against an angular plaster or wall. Also it has kerykeion, talaria and maybe petasos. In this stele, Hermes is found especially as a psychopompos. Hermes, by being depicted smaller than the man who owns the grave stele on his right, also enables the deceased to become a hero. In addition, Hermes keeps his feet crossed like the servants on the grave steles and exhibits a mourning pose for the dead. It is possible to consider Hermes' mourning for the dead as a kind of farewell scene. Hermes may also have assumed a role as the savior and supporter of the deceased person and perhaps his relatives. It can be said that Hermes’ stance was modeled Praxiteles’ Leaning Satyr. The man who owns the stele becomes a hero here, and the origin of the divine stance seen in him must be a Zeus statue of Pheidias. The lion on the stele, on the other hand, symbolizes the stele owner's victory over death and attaining immortality and the power of this person, in addition to its protective feature. The Pednelissos Grave Stele is a frameless grave stele, Attic type or produced in this tradition. The stele may have been made by a local craftsman who knew the Attictype grave stele tradition in Pednelissos, or by a traveling craftsman who stopped by here. It is also possible, though less likely, that the stele will be traded to order. In addition, it is possible to accept the grave stele as a unique work, in which the variation of the two works belonging to Pheidias and Praxiteles is given successfully. The Pednelissos Grave Stele can be dated to the Late Hellenistic Period, around 150-50 BC.

The image of 'Christ trampling the beasts' (often illustrating Psalm 91:13) is well known in early Christian art, from Mediterranean lamps and mosaics to Carolingian book covers and illuminations. In the British Isles before the tenth century, however, it is rare, represented most famously in one book illumination and two memorial stones. The design seen on a stone in Burton-in-Kendal (Cumbria, England) and on a Viking-Age cross slab in Kirk Andreas (Isle of Man) appears to have been inspired by those models, indicating contact and exchange of ideas with the Continent. Furthermore, the imagery of the Manx stone includes a scene from pagan mythology, namely one of the Viking apocalypse, the Ragnarök. This places the stone's design between native Christianity and residual Norse paganism on the Island and betrays lingering connections with Scandinavia. This discussion investigates the different iconographical links and influences the artisans who created the British stone's imagery appear to have drawn on, both by comparing the Christian images to Continental examples and by analysing the meaning of Norse mythology on a Christian gravestone.

This examination of north central Indiana between 1890 and 1940 offers a unique insight into the historic response to stillborn and newborn infant deaths. With a remarkable record of those interred, as well as local newspapers from these communities, the records of families who endured these losses allow us to discover their public responses to stillbirths. This examination also considers the broader social and cultural forces that shaped how families and communities responded to stillbirths, including advertisements for the famous patent medicine, Dr. Pierce's, which promised that women taking their pills would prevent a stillborn baby, and the heavily reported Canadian Great Stork Derby.

The Teutonic Order was one of the most powerful political agents in medieval Livonia. This paper focuses on the grave slabs and commemorations of high-ranking Teutonic knights. Based on the written evidence, where the masters and high officials were buried and the spatial and liturgical context of their graves are studied. Then the grave slabs which have either survived or are known from historical drawings or photos are examined. There is information on only seven slabs: three of them belonged to Livonian masters, two to marshals and two to commanders. The visual and textual messages of the slabs are analysed: what motifs and symbols were used, how the deceased were represented, and what the language and content of inscriptions were. Finally, the topic of how the location and appearance of the slabs have changed since the 19th century is addressed as well.

ÖZET Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda Ermenilerle ilgili literatüre bakıldığında karşımıza çıkan temel sorunlardan biri de Ermeni toplumuna dair edebi, kültürel, tarihi ve filolojik boyutuyla ilgili yürütülen çalışmaların sayısının azlığıdır. Kuşkusuz geçmişten günümüze 1915 Olaylarıyla ilgili çok sayıda çalışma yürütülmüş ve yürütülmeye de devam edilmektedir ancak özellikle Ermeni epigrafik eserleriyle ilgili yapılan çalışmalara bakıldığında bu sayının son derece sınırlı olduğu görülmektedir. Buradan hareketle hem bu konudaki sorunlar hem de tarihsel anlamda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda özellikle de 19. Yüzyılın ikinci yarısına ait Ermenice mezar taşları incelenecektir. Bu kapsamda ilk etapta Türkiye'de epigrafi alanı ile ilgili yürütülen çalışmalara kısaca yer verilecektir. Daha sonra özellikle Türkiye'de Ermeni dili ile ilgili yürütülen epigrafik çalışmaların ne düzeyde olduğu ve bu alandaki sorunlara kısaca değinilecektir. Çalışmada ülkemizde özellikle Ermenice mezar taşlarının hangi bölgelerde yoğunluk gösterdiği üzerinde de durularak, Ankara, Mardin, Aydın, Afyonkarahisar vb. yerlerde ve müzelerde tespit edilmiş olan Ermenice mezar taşlarından bazı örnekler sunulacak ve bu taşların nasıl yorumlanması gerektiğine dair bilgilere kısaca yer verilecektir. Bu çalışmada Ermenice mezar taşlarından hareketle 19. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında Ermeni toplumuna dair bulunan bu taşların çevirileri yapılarak genel yapısı değerlendirilecektir. Çalışma kapsamında ayrıca Ermeni mezar taşlarından yararlanılarak, burada yer alan bilgilerin nasıl yorumlanması gerektiği ve bu bilgilerin neden önemli olduğu üzerinde de durulacaktır. ABSTRACT When we look into the existing literature on Ottoman Armenians, it is seen that one of the main problems we encounter is the scarcity of the academic publications on the Ottoman Armenian community's literary, cultural, historical and philological works. Especially when it comes to Armenian epigraphic works, there has been negligible academic work. In order to fill this gap, this article examines the Armenian tombstones found in the Ottoman Empire since the second half of the 19th century. It first briefly discusses the related works in the field of epigraphy in Turkey. Then, it looks into the epigraphic works held in Turkey in the field of Armenian to find out the problems in the area. The article demonstrates the density of the Armenian tombstones in Turkey and provides examples of Armenian tombstones found in provinces such as Ankara, Mardin, Aydin, Afyonkarahisar and in various museums. In doing so, it includes a brief information on how these tombstones should be examined. Finally, the article provides the Turkish translation of Armenian texts on tombstones and analyses the content of these articles.

Under extreme conditions, the acts of writing, witnessing and speaking go on as a last resort -- not as a way to communicate among disparate audiences but into the void.  Can we rethink emerging public spheres and plural democratic vistas (articulated in Eickelman and Anderson, 1999) to question the ways in which aspects of public culture might emerge from the open grave of the cemetery or from behind closed prison walls?

The commemoration of the dead on burial monuments developed through the Middle Ages, from simple slabs without inscriptions to large, trapezoid slabs with long inscriptions and images of the deceased. The change comes With the introduction of the dogma of the Purgatory in 1274, when  each individual became responsible for their salvation. Noway possesses an interesting collection of little-known burial monuments from the Early and High Middle Ages. This paper presents an outline of their history.

https://www.tiki-toki.com/blog/entry/ne-gravestones/

We are pleased to feature a very unique timeline this month about New England Gravestones and the Iconography of Death which was created by Robin Ness (@rwness) of Brown University.

The timeline shows how the iconography of gravestones changed from the 1600s to the very early 1900s in New England (the northeastern part of the United States) using examples from the creator's ancestors.

Using Tiki-Toki's category band view, stories are categorized into key events and locations (Massachusetts, Merrimack Valley and Maine). The format the timeline creator chose makes browsing the content very intuitive, not to mention that the stories include great images and well-researched, informative text.

So take a moment and explore the timeline - you may come away with a new appreciation for iconography on gravestones!

Autor tekstu z perspektywy filozoficznej analizuje "Widma" Svena Augustijnena. Stara się udowodnić, że kino belgijskiego reżysera jest nawiedzone, gdyż przedstawia rzeczywistość utkaną ze śladów, które zaburzają tradycyjny podział na obecność i nieobecność. Autor badając filmowy warsztat Augustijnena oraz posługując się widmontologią Jacquesa Derridy pokazuje, w jaki sposób współczesne kino próbuje zmierzyć się z trudną i wciąż niezakończoną kolonialną historią Belgii (ludobójstwem, jakiego dokonano na terenie Konga za rządów króla Belgii Leopolda II oraz zabójstwem pierwszego premiera niepodległego Konga Patrice'a Lumumby).

The author analyzes Sven Agustijnen's Specters from the philosophical perspective. He tries to prove that the cinema of Belgian director is haunted because it presents the reality as made out of traces, which disturb the traditional division into presence and absence. The author analyzes the Augustijnen's film techniques and uses Jacques Derrida hauntology to show, how contemporary cinema tries to face the difficult and unfinished colonial history of Belgium (the genocide in Congo during the reign of the Belgian king Leopold II and the murder of the first prime minister of the independent Congo, Patrice  Lumumba).

The Hatch Cemetery (16RA1087) was discovered in 2001near Roxana, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. This paper discusses the gravestones and other features at the cemetery. Additionally, a member of the Hatch family surrendered at the Battle of Vicksburg and also played several roles in west-central Louisiana history.

En este artículo se analiza el papel de los cementerios como espacios en los que se refleja la historia y la idiosincracia de las ciudades a las que sirven, ejemplificados en las necrópolis de la comarca de la Axarquía malagueña, por los que se efectúa un recorrido histórico, antropológico y artístico, en el que la arquitectura popular es el aspecto más relevante.

Abstract (successfully) submitted to the second annual Death Online Research Symposium (DORS2) Kingston University (2015). The use of augmented reality (AR) to enhance memorials, memory & remebrance. Presentation slides also available on this site as well as a video of the presentation.

Bu çalışmada, Bursa ili İnegöl ilçesi Kavaklaraltı Mezarlığında ilk
gömülerinin yapıldığı bölümde yer alan Arap harfleri ile Osmanlıca olarak
düzenlenen 41 adet mezar taşından 24 tanesi ele alınmıştır. Araştırmada, söz konusu
mezar taşlarının seçilmesinin sebebi taşlarda yer alan “muhacir” ibaresi ya da mezar
da yatan kişinin doğduğu toprakları tanımlayan “memleket” ibareleridir.
Ayrıntılı olarak tanımlanan muhacir mezar taşları malzeme, süsleme programı
ve biçimsel özellikleri açısından içerisinde yer aldıkları mezarlığın ve dönemin diğer
mezar taşlarından herhangi bir farklılık göstermezler. Bu mezar taşlarını diğerlerinden
ayıran en önemli özellik hiç şüphesiz ki “muhacir” ibaresidir. Mezarda yatan
insanların anavatana dışarıdan geldiklerini gösteren “muhacir” ibaresinin yanında
muhacirlerin doğdukları toprakların isimleri de mezar taşlarına yansımıştır.
Bu çalışma ile İnegöl ilçesi için hem bir mezar taşı envanteri oluşturulması
için ilk adım atılmış olmakta; hem de ilçenin demografik yapısındaki değişimle ilgili
veriler ortaya konulmaktadır.