From Reuse of Space to Claim for Permanence in British Burial Grounds: the Long-term Landscape Implications of Permanent Commemoration.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Investigating Cultural Aspects of Historic Mortuary Archaeology: Perspectives from Europe and North America", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, graves were rarely marked with a permanent stone monument and as descendants themselves died and memory of earlier generations and their burial locations were forgotten, plots could be reused. A combination of spatial limitations in urban graveyards with urban population growth and the desire in all parts of the country for an ever-increasing proportion of the population desiring a stone grave marker, led to a transformation in the landscape of the churchyard. Using case studies from a variety of British sites, the pattern of memorial choice can be discerned spatially, and the dynamics of plot claiming, and fossilisation, led to the need for additional burial land rather than reuse of the historic churchyard. The dynamics of churchyard development also reveals changing power relationships between bereaved families and burial ground managers which affected memorial choice as well as plot location.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Investigating Cultural Aspects of Historic Mortuary Archaeology: Perspectives from Europe and North America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow