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Origins of Graveyards
By Tom Sangers
Graveyards, as we know, are a place set aside for the
long term burial of the dead, usually with headstones or
gravestones placed at the head of the burial. Graveyards
were usually established at the same time as the church
and were administered by the church and were often for
those that couldn't afford to be buried inside or
beneath the place of worship. Those that were sizeably
rich, held important professions, were part of nobility
or were part of any other high status had the privilege
of being buried on individual crypts inside or beneath
the church with an indication of their name, date of
death and other biographical data. Middle and low social
status people were largely buried in graveyards around
the relevant church and were again divided up by social
status. Those who could afford the work of a stone mason
would have a memorial headstone carved for the deceased
which held their name and date of death and was set up
over the place of burial. The more writing and symbols
carved the more expensive it was.
Similar to other possessions like house and transport,
richer families would compete for the artistic value of
their family headstone in comparison with others around
it. Sometimes they would add a statue such as a weeping
angel on top of the gravestone. Some were less fortunate
and could not afford to pay for a headstone so they
would usually opt for a religious symbol made from wood
on the place of burial such as a Christian Cross;
however these never had the longevity that headstones
would achieve and would often deteriorate over a few
years with rain and snow. Some families would opt for a
blacksmith to make them large crosses made from various
metals and this would be put on the place of the burial.
Thousands of graveyards still stand across the world
today and although cemeteries took off largely in the
late 18th century and throughout the 19th century,
graveyards are a place where the oldest graves of a
community or part of a city can still be found. |
