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Headstone

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For other uses, see Headstone (disambiguation).
"Tombstone" redirects here. For other uses, see Tombstone (disambiguation).

Image:Andrew Drake.jpg Jarvis Andrew Lattin (1853-1941) granite tombstone from Powell Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York

A headstone, tombstone or gravestone is a permanent marker, normally carved from stone, placed over or next to the site of a burial in a cemetery or elsewhere.

Contents

[edit] Use

Originally, a tombstone was the stone lid of a stone coffin, or the coffin itself, and a gravestone was the stone slab that was laid over a grave. Now all three terms are also used for markers placed at the head of the grave. Originally graves in the 1700s also contained footstones to demarcate the foot end of the grave. Footstones were rarely carved, and most cemeteries removed them to make cutting the grass easier.

Graves and any related memorials are a focus for mourning and remembrance. The names of relatives are often added to a gravestone over the years, so that one marker may chronicle the passing of an entire family spread over decades. Since gravestones and a plot in a cemetery cost money, they are also a symbol of wealth or prominence in a community. Some gravestones were even commissioned and erected to their own memory by people who were still alive, as a testament to their wealth and status.

Crematoria frequently offer similar alternatives for families who do not have a grave to mark, but who want a focus for their mourning and for remembrance. Carved or cast plaques inside the crematorium for example may serve this purpose.

[edit] Materials

  • Fieldstones. The earliest markers for graves were natural fieldstone, some unmarked and others decorated or incised using a metal awl. Typical motifs for the carving included a cross and the deceased's name and age.
  • Granite. Granite is a hard stone and is difficult to carve. Computer controlled rotary bits carve modern granite tombstones.
  • Marble. Marble replaced sandstone in the early 1800s. In geographical areas with high rainfall, the marble slowly dissolves in the slightly acidic rainwater and the inscriptions become unreadable.
  • Sandstone. In the 1600s in the United States sandstone replaced fieldstones. The material is durable yet soft enough to carve easily. Some sandstone markers are so well preserved that individual chisel marks can be discerned in the carving. Others have delaminated and crumbled into dust. Delamination occurs when water gets between the layers that make up the sandstone. As it freezes and expands the layers flake off.

[edit] Inscriptions

These markers are often elaborately carved into crosses, or may depict angels, emblems, symbols of a trade or status, or symbols of death (skulls or winged skulls called death's heads may be carved on old headstones, for example).

Others bear inscriptions; frequently these are quotations from religious texts, or epitaphs in praise of the deceased. In a few instances the inscription is in the form of a plea, admonishment, testament of faith, claim to fame or even a curse - William Shakespeare's inscription famously declares;

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosèd here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

The basic information on the headstone generally includes the name of the deceased and their date of birth and death. Such information can be useful to genealogists and local historians. Headstone engravers faced their own "Year 2000 problem" when still-living people, as many as 500,000 the United States alone, possessed headstones with pre-carved death dates beginning 19–.[1]

Modern gravestones may include framed photographs of the deceased; photographic images or artwork (showing the loved one, or some other image relevant to their life, interests or achievements) can now be engraved onto smooth stone surfaces. Many cemeteries, however, especially those surrounding historic churches or in conservation areas, have strict regulations as to the appropriate materials for a memorial, and may also forbid the use of artificial flowers in a floral tribute.

Gravestones which are well carved in hard-wearing stone may weather many centuries exposed in graveyards and still remain legible. Those which are fixed on the inside of churches, on the walls or on the floor (frequently as near to the altar as possible) may last much longer: such memorials were often embellished with a "monumental brass". Cemeteries do, however, require maintenance, as over the centuries stones may topple and injure people, or graves may simply become overgrown and their markers lost or vandalised.

[edit] Emblems

Image:Shebbear Devon gravestone.jpg
Image:Garden of remembrance arch headstone.jpg

Special emblems on tombstones indicate several familiar themes in the Christian faith. Some examples are:

[edit] Image Gallery

Headstones in the Japanese Cemetery in Broome, Western Australia
A cemetery in rural Spain
A typical late 20th century headstone in the United States
Headstone in an English cemetery
19th century marble headstone in an Iowa cemetery
18th century Biedermeier-Headstone from the St. Marx cemetery, Vienna, Austria
German POW
Camp Butler National Cemetery
The grave marker for Horatio Nelson Ball and his father, Joseph Ball, Jr. in the Grandville Cemetery, MI.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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