Guidelines for Creating a Typology for Mass-Produced 19th and 20th Century Burial Container Hardware

Summary

The analysis and historical study of burial container hardware and other mortuary artifacts is crucial in establishing a useful discourse between the multiple lines of evidence recorded and recovered in historical cemetery investigations. Exact identification of types and styles of burial container hardware is vital in defining the chronology of burial, which is necessary in situations where grave markers have been lost or moved from their original locations. In addition, variations in hardware styles and forms, as well as materials of manufacture, indirectly reflect aspects of socio-economic class, status, and/or community involvement in the funeral process. A full understanding of the burial container hardware exposes aspects of the deepening control of the professional funeral industry in the production and distribution of funeral merchandise during the late 19th and early 20th century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Poster Submission 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 670

File Information