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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
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Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
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Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
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West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Grave excavations tell tales of past traditions |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 29 June 2004 |
BY SCHUYLER KROPF
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Something about the remains in grave No. 188 gave archaeologist Kristrina Shuler reason to pause. Every other skeleton appeared to be buried in the traditional Christian practice: flat on their back, feet pointing east. Except No. 188.
He, or she (scientists haven't determined yet), is lying on the right side, body slightly curled as if napping inside a wooden coffin.
Why the bones rest that way no one knows. Shuler reluctantly let her mind wander toward the possibility of the horrific. Perhaps this poor, unremembered soul was ill or in a coma and mistakenly buried alive.
"It happened back then," she said, pointing toward the weaknesses of medical treatments in mid-to-late 19th-century Charleston. "It is possible. I can't think of any other reason why," she said.
The excavation of dozens of graves beneath the former west stands of The Citadel's Johnson Hagood football stadium has confirmed many burial traditions and superstitions of America's past.
At least one set of remains was found with coins placed over eye sockets, a common practice designed to keep the eyes shut. Others had a few coins on the bodies, apparently to pay the cost of traveling through the afterlife.
Some coffins have viewing glass plates over the places where faces might be seen. All the graves face to the east, a practice in Christianity that allows the dead to witness the second coming of Christ, according to some beliefs. Yet there is no evidence of headstones in the area where workers are concentrating, believed to be a potter's field for the poor.
"There was no money for that," said Ralph Bailey Jr., vice president of Brockington and Associates, the Mount Pleasant archaeological and consulting firm that is doing the $149,000 recovery and removal project for The Citadel.
The graveyard under Johnson Hagood's grounds became part of Charleston lore in the 1990s when local Civil War re-enactors went hunting for lost Confederates, including members of the submarine H.L. Hunley's first crew. The crew members drowned during a test mission in 1863 and were buried in the area when the site served as the city's mariner-military graveyard.
Eighty-three years after the war ended, those war graves, along with dozens of others belonging to civilians, were covered by concrete and cement when the city of Charleston built the 21,000-seat stadium in 1948.
Archaeologists are extracting the remains this summer as part of Johnson Hagood's renovation, which is on hold while a local and private group look at building a larger stadium in the neighborhood capable of hosting an NCAA football bowl game. Johnson Hagood is too small for that.
During a visit to the site Monday, workers spent the morning gingerly scooping away dirt from graves as they outlined and defined the decayed caskets. Some graves are several feet deeper than others, which could be an indication of decades lapsed between burials or something as simple as a gravedigger not wanting to go too deep during the hot summer, Shuler said.
When a worker gets closer to bone, smaller scraping tools are used, including some made of bamboo and others that are recycled chopsticks.
As bones come out, they are placed in wooden caskets about the size of a laundry basket and taken away for study. Anything of value is quickly removed. Few personal items have been recovered, though shirt and trouser buttons seem to be the most resilient.
It's too early to tell what race the skeletons are. That will come after lab analyses. A numbering system that picks up where the Confederate recovery left off keeps records straight. About 80 sets of civilian remains have been recovered so far.
Parts of the potter's field cemetery overlap with neighboring -- but differently designated -- burial areas. In some cases, coffins were placed into burial pits dug years earlier, causing remains to co-mingle as the coffins broke up in wet soil.
The excavation is expected to last into the rest of summer. In the coming weeks, archaeologists plan to move into an adjacent cemetery believed to be for merchant seamen.
Most of the graves being opened now are believed to belong to adult civilians. "Each one of these people has an interesting story to tell," Bailey said.
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant, is energy - invincible determination--a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.” Sir Thomas Bowell Buxton
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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