The Willow and The Urn

This week I would like to focus on the symbols that followed the death head and the cherub, which I discussed last week. This week's symbols are the willow tree and the urn. The table shown below is a great visual aid showing the change in popularity of each symbol throughout the 1700s and 1800s.

(http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/deathshead.html)

After The Great Awakening took place in early America, citizen's philosophies began to change along with political ideals. Americans began to imitate Roman and Greek styles in their architecture and, surprisingly, on their gravestones. 

The urn was an Imperial Roman device used to contain ashes. It symbolized the immortality of the soul.  The willow was an ancient mourning symbol. The combination of these two symbols showed an increase in sentimentality towards death. The urn and willow symbol continued to be used on gravestones up until the 1930s (eyesofscyld). 

During the late 1700s there was also a change in the entire shape of the gravestone. The earlier gravestones had rounded upper corners, while the later ones were square. This change was also because of the neoclassical era inspired by the ancient Romans.

The picture above is an example of the urn and willow symbol. Although this gravestone has rounded corners, it has a more intricate edge than the earlier stones. 

Another change which occurs at the end of the 16th century is the statement carved on the gravestone. Earlier stones read "Here lies" or "Here lies the body of", and the later stones read "In memory of" or "Sacred to the memory of". This allows the stone to be placed without having to have the body buried beneath it. This would make sense if, say, someone died at sea, or if the body could not be salvaged.

Sources:

Deetz, Patricia Scott and Fennell, Christopher. Death's Head, Cherub, Urn and Willow. Dec 14 2007. Retrieved Sept 29 2013. Web.

eyesofscyld. New England Gravestone Symbolism. YouTube. Mar 3 2013. Web. Retrieved Sept 8, 2013.

Iconography of the Gravestones. City of Boston. Web. Retrieved Sept 22, 2013.

Gravestone Symbols

In my first post I forgot to mention my research question..

“ What are the meanings behind the carvings on the New England gravestones and in what time era were they used?”

Since I very briefly covered the history of the New England time era I now have a better understanding how old some of these gravestones are. Many of them are over 300 years old!

This week I have focused on finding the actual translations of the symbols found on New England gravestones. I found a great video that goes through an extensive list of symbols and their meanings. To watch it follow the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EYs5nI9bi4g

The maker of this video, "eyesofscyld", says he spends a lot of time in cemeteries because he finds them interesting and solemn. He also says, "...you begin to notice a language in the headstones beyond what is written on the epitaphs.." It is not because colonial Americans were illiterate, but because they communicated with symbols and text much like we do today.

The first symbol I want to decode is that of the "winged skull" at the top of many New England gravestones. 

This symbol is called death's head. It was used in the times of early orthodox puritanism and represented the death of the individual buried below. This symbol is non-religious because the Puritans were against attributing humans to spiritual beings. Some speculate that the skull symbolizes the physical death while the wings symbolize spiritual regeneration. This symbol was mainly used in the 17th century.

Another symbol I would like to cover today is the "winged cherub".

The winged cherub, or soul effigy, is the second version of the death head. As you can see it is no longer a skeleton and has hair, eyes, a nose, and a smiling mouth. One would think this change in symbols had something to do with the religious changes during The Great Awakening. However, historians have discovered that the use of the cherub does not chronologically match up with any changes in religion and that the death head was still used after the cherub was discovered. The cherub symbol represents the soul's flight to heaven.

Sources:

eyesofscyld. New England Gravestone Symbolism. YouTube. Mar 3 2013. Web. Retrieved Sept 8, 2013.

Iconography of the Gravestones. City of Boston. Web. Retrieved Sept 22, 2013.

Introduction to New England Gravestones

Hello and welcome to my blog about gravestones of colonial New England!

This blog is for a project in one of my classes at Southeast Missouri State University. My posts will be covering my research on the topic, and hopefully we will learn all about the symbols on gravestones in New England and what they mean.

The reason I chose this topic to research is my passion for art and art history. Although I am not an art major I love creating artwork and studying the symbolism in art. I feel that studying the meanings of the carvings found on gravestones will help me understand people's opinions on the relationship between life and death. I am very excited to understand more about the colonial New England time period.

First, I would like to briefly introduce some major events that took place during this crucial time period between England and the United States. Below is the first map on New England printed in North America. It was made by John Foster in 1677.

 

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries there were many political and military conflicts between England and the new settlers of New England, also known as Puritans. These conflicts, along with the encouragement of French and English officials, caused the French and Indian Wars. The wars caused the Puritans to believe they were being punished by God for their sins, and that lead to witchcraft hysteria (which I will be researching and covering at a later time).

 

Another couple of important events which occurred during this time were the Glorious Revolution in England and the Great Awakening in New England. The Glorious Revolution began in 1689 with the English Bill of Rights, the Toleration Act, and the Mutiny Act. The Great Awakening was a spiritual revival in New England started by minister Jonathan Edwards in 1735.

 

I will touch on more important event and dates later in my blog. Thanks for visiting!