A few of the questions that we came to look at were things like quality of grave vs. area in cemetery, stylistic differences, and were there some that were clearly more cared for than others.
One thing that I did notice on two of the graves that we looked at was the use of the lamb on the top of the gravestone. I had noticed some graves in Ross Bay during previous trips here that had them on it and I didn't pay much attention to them until now. Well when I first looked at them I thought it was a rat, then a dog and then a cat, and then finally a lamb because some tiny part of my brain remembered that lambs were a sign of innocence and sure enough after some serious googling my idea was proven. Typically though I couldn't find an academic article on it. (believe my validity at your own accord)(AHA did find an academic article with the lamb). Along with innocence it also brings in the idea of religion and Christianity "the lamb of god". Both of the children buried in these graves were under the age of 1 month and both were found in the Roman Catholic section of the cemetery, which makes sense with linking the lamb to religion. Another commonality of these two graves was they both passed away in the 1890s, so the lamb could have been a trend of the time. If I had more research hours I would definitely take a closer examination of that.
Another question we were looking at was the quality of the graves vs. the area they were buried in the cemetery. Our main examination was with the graves that we found in "Potters Field" 4 of the 13 were found in that section. I thought that the ones that we were going to find in that section would be much more quaint and simple than what we found. One of them a triple grave was in quite good condition for the age of the headstone and had a decal of a crown with a cross inside of it. In comparison to some of the other ones it seemed quite elaborate. Some are quite weathered but have some elaborate designs like draping fabric over top of the gravestone or etched in flowers at the top of the stone. What I was expecting was simple gravestone and plot. I would like to be able to further investigate plot prices vs. funerary pricing was in the late 19th century to see if there was cheaper "deals" for that area in the cemetery or if it was just that more money was spent on children compared to adults in the section.
There was one grave that took to my personal interest and that was the one of Annie Aileen Waites who was buried in 1898 but the grave marker looks like it could have been put in yesterday. It was shiny, clean and been etched into by a laser now compared to the other graves of that time we can 100% guess that it had been replaced in the last 20 years. That makes me wonder whether it had been replaced by request of the family or whether it had become damaged and the people at the cemetery had replaced it. It would be something interesting to look at and see if there were other ones in the cemetery like that.
I was reading an article about child burials in the North of France where they were surprised to find monumental graves for children because it was a tradition normally saved for just adults. The archaeologists are reconsidering the models they had set for the site because of this which would mean that age of the person buried was not a plausible way to look at the burials they decided that it was potentially inherited status of the children that allowed them to be buried in the cemetery. And all the children ranging from perinatal to teenager were buried with the same goods not discriminating with their age at all. It would be interesting to see if there were any records of what was buried with the children at Ross Bay Cemetery if any to compare it to the cemetery in France.
Chambon, P., Murail, P., Thomas, A., 2011. Unpacking burial and rank: the role of children in the first monumental cemeteries of Western Europe (4600–4300 BC). Antiquity, 85, pp.772-786.
In another article that I read it was a lot closer to home meaning that the cemetery was in Belleville, Ontario. I find the idea of grave goods quite interesting and this article discusses them with a more recent finds because of having to dig up a whole cemetery that was under 150 years old made me very curious, in a morbid way, to know what is in those coffins. When they weren't able to make any age guesses because of lack of bones they would use the size of the coffin or even how many handles that was on the coffin if it was destroyed. They were also able to tell status by looking at the handles because they would either be fairly elaborate or they would be very simple.They didn't find any great spoils inside the children's coffins just normal stuff like hair ribbons and clips, eyeglasses, and jewelry. It seems that the sort of stuff that was found was pretty close to what would be found today in a grave. Makes me wonder where/when things shifted from coins and pots to more normal everyday stuff.
Mckillop, H., 1995. Recognizing Children's Graves in Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries: Excavations in St. Thomas Anglican Churchyard, Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Historical Archaeology, 29(2), pp.77-99
These articles is what really interests me but of course this is what doesn't happen very often! Digging up cemeteries, especially in our case (You can't just go digging up Ross Bay, now can you). I think it will be many many many plethora of years before it would be dug up, if even ever. I would like to be able to link records of peoples lives with what is their grave or what was put in to their grave by family, if that is any different then what they would of wanted.
This is the map of all the graves that we used. So feel free to take a look.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjabarton/sets/72157629205969831/map/
This is the website that I found the meanings of grave markers, if you want to take a look:
http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-tl/pages/Cem_Symbolism.htm
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