A country built on dead people

  So way back when, I went to England with my parents and as we were running about looking at historical monument and eating crisps I realized: Most of these cities are built on dead guys! I don't mean in the figurative sense either. I was walking into a cathedral and looked down to see that the floor was actually paved with headstones.
  I suppose this is within reason as the association with dead and church is a close one. However, on a tour of a small coastal town, I was introduced to a pastor's garden what is fertilized by the bodies of drowned sailors. Apparently drownings were so common that they would collect the bodies in rows, shake some lye and dirt over them then place another row of bodies on top.
   These sightings were followed by barrow mounds, massive cemeteries, elaborate sarcophagi and various other creative ways of storing a body. I can't help but wonder if burial wasn't entirely related to social factors but in part a mentality of "Well this is a really small island and we have A LOT of dead people; where do we put them all??". Obviously the enormous burial mounds had some serious though behind them but think about it: they had the Black Plague and more wars than you can shake several large, pointed sticks at. It's surprising that every inch of England doesn't have a corpse under it!
  Corpse garden? Just saying it doesn't really say "pre-meditated burial ritual".
 

Infants of the 19th Century: Child Graves in Ross Bay Cemetery

View Ross Bay European Infant and Children Burials in a larger map
    For our memorial monument analysis we examined ten graves in the F section of Ross Bay cemetery. This is one of the original areas of the cemetery created in 1872 rather than the parts that were added during the 1890 expansion. The majority of the grave markers in this area are from the 18th century or early 19th century with a few modern exceptions.
   We chose this section because we were interested in child mortalities in the 19th century so it was logical to examine one of the older areas of the Ross Bay Cemetery.
    Unfortunately, because section F was traditionally the poor section of the cemetery many of the graves, child and otherwise, wouldn't be marked. Since we cannot record these graves, our results might not be correct. Also, we didn't have a comparative sampling of children's graves from later years to compare the monuments to so we couldn't get a contrast for our results.
Research Questions:
1. What was the average age of the deceased infants? What could this indicate about the families they came from?
2. Are there any trends in the decoration of the grave monuments?
3. Were they buried alone or with family and what might this indicate about he economic status of the people that buried them?

 When he lower area of section F at the Ross Bay Cemetery was traditionally used for destitute citizens, criminals and suicides (Adams, 1998: 22) which makes it probable that at least some of the grave monuments that we examined belonged to the lower class citizens of 19th century Victoria. The grave monuments themselves were simple in design consisting mostly of shouldered or simple tablets, plaques or scroll-faced markers (Adams, 1998: 43).
  Fortunately, most of the inscriptions on the tombstones were still legible so we were able to collect the ages of all the children at the 10 monuments we examined. All but one (Edward Sehl aged 4 years and 8 months) of the infant burials we found were aged one year or less; many of them only survived a few months. The short life span of the 12 infants recorded at these memorial sites suggest at several possible trends in their lifestyle. Several died within a few days which might have been due to undernourished mothers or inhospitable birthing conditions. The short lifespans of the others could be due to malnourishment and childhood diseases with no medical treatment. Birchenall mapped the trend between poverty and increased mortality in statistics taken between 1640-2000 in Whales (2007). He noted that increases in child mortality was linked to malnutrition in their parents. Neglect is another possible cause of infant mortality but it seems unlikely in these cases since the families went to the trouble of memorializing them.
      Other than the simplistic nature of the memorial monuments, there weren't many commonalities observed between markers. One trend observed on three of the stones is a small lamb. The lamb is only found on graves markers dedicated to solely children rather than monuments also dedicated to adults. This might be meant to denote the innocence and/or youth of the individual buried there.
   Another trend is markers dedicated to more than one individual. Four of the grave monuments are dedicated to at least two individuals; one actually has 5 individuals inscribed on it. This could reinforce the modest means of the people who funded the inhumations since placing multiple individuals in one plot or at least commemorating them on one monument would be more cost effective than placing them in individual places.
  Overall, the monuments are suggestive of people of modest means due to the shape and, sometimes, the multiple individuals inscribed on them. The short lifespans on the children commemorated are evidence of a harsh lifestyle both their own and that of their parents.  
 Adams, J. 1998. A historic guide to Ross Bay cemetery. Victoria, BC: Morriss printing company ltd.
 Nirchenall, J.A., 2007. Escaping high mortality. Econ Growth 12: 351-387.

Ashes to.. glasses?

  I am fully aware that there are many odd things you can do with human remains. History provides us with a wide array of exciting ways to get rid of a dead body: you can carve their arms into flutes, leave their body for the vultures, fashion their heads into stylish beer mugs, or build a hill over top of them. But why stop there?
Modern alternatives look down their nose at the tradition wooden box and offer you hip ways to make use of your ashy remains. Your ashes can start a coral reef, be painted into a work of art or, as I recently (as in 10 minutes ago) discovered the last of your physical remains can be blown into a glass orb!

Image from http://memoryglass.com

   It's called "Memory Glass" and actually I think it's quite charming. No really! Well ok it's kind of morbid having great aunt Hettie turned into a paperweight but it's an interesting alternative to the sinister little ash urn that sits on the mantle piece. They put the deceased's ashes into freshly blown glass then let it harden. They can even divide the ashes up into multiple orbs and/or small glass pendants so EVERYONE can have part of their dead relative!
   Yes it's a little weird and honestly I don't think I'm close enough to anyone to have their ashes hanging around my neck. It's just one of those things. This also probably not the alternative I would choose for myself. I just think about my little glass orb collecting dust and feel a bit sad.. However, for those people who like to keep their dead close and want to be a little Martha Stewart-ish about it there's no way you can go wrong!
  I'm really not sure what the archaeologist doing material analysis on a blown glass orb would think when they discover human ashes inside of it. On one had, I'd imagine they'd think it's an odd addition to the home decor but it's not exactly an action without precedent.
  Bodies have been known to be buried under the foundation of houses and the skulls of relatives in some cultures as sort of a protective totem so Memory Glass is just North America's home decorator approach of storing a dead body in the house.

Me and all of my worldy possessions

  If I were to suddenly drop dead right now (which hopefully doesn't happen, it would be really inconvenient), I would want to be buried with all of my books which means I will probably need a large-ish grave. Later archaeologists might misinterpret this and think that I'm some sort of scholarly type which, I suppose, is half true but mostly I just think it's apt that I be buried as I live: surrounded by giant heaps of paper.
   I would also want my pocket knife tossed in there with me because a lot of burials I've examined in other courses include items of everyday use and I figure I might as well give other anthropologists a leg up in their cultural examinations. I also would like to be dressed in my Doc Martins mostly because I'm just very attached to them but also possibly to give the impression that I am more than just a lowly paper hoarder. Or at least that I am a lowly paper hoarder with nice boots.
  As a finishing touch, my grave or cyst or mound should be lined with honey and crushed clam shells. Why? No reason other than I'm a little whimsical and I would love to see a future generation interpret that. Hah!

And today shall be my firstest post

Hi there
I am Joelle, a fourth year anthropology insomniac- i mean student. I guess they're kind of the same thing..
I like archaeology and physical anthropology and burials! So I guess the more relevant question would be: Why wouldn't I take this course?
I'm really interested in the dead and all the trappings that go with them probably in part due to watching waaay too many murder mysteries growing up. That and my parents believed that bringing your child to graveyards and introducing her to Aztec sacrifice rituals and Egyptian mummification methods at a young age were integral to her development. That's historians for you.
 I'm looking forward to getting a better grasp on the variety of burial practices that have been used in the past and just learning more about really ancient dead guys in general.