Here Lies Buried

The Body Of

JOHN BELUSHI

January 24, 1949

March 5, 1982

I may be gone, but

Rock and Roll lives on.

Catie, a friend of mine, was vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard and walked through Abel’s Hill Cemetery when she spied the tombstone of comedy legend John Belushi. His gray slate marker depicts the skull and crossbones. Here, what is old is new again. Some of the oldest gravestones in America display the skull and crossbones iconography broadcasting the message to “remember death” meant to remind all that life is short.

Here lies buried

The Body of Mr BENJAMIN PARKER Mercht

Who Departed this Life

The 14^th day of November

1769

Aged 54 Years

Here again on this gray slate gravestone in the Granary Burying Ground at Boston is an example of the skull and crossbones symbol.

But if you take a close look at the edges of the gravestone were the beginnings of a softer message.  Two small winged cherub faces are carved on the marker.  These images are called “soul effigies”.  They mark the transition away from harsh Puritan theology to the gentler Age of Enlightenment that gave way to the sentimentality of the Victorian Era.

These winged figures represent the flight of the soul away from the body, presumably to Heaven.  Instead of the symbolism of skulls, bones, grave-digging equipment and the like, the soul effigies speak to a message of optimism and the glory of the soul in the hereafter.

Here lies buried

The Body of

Capt JOSEPH LAMBERT

Who departed this Life

August 17^th 1790

in the 60^th Year

of his Age.

The version found at the Burying Point in Salem, Massachusetts, is a variant of the skull and cross bones that depicts the skull with wings—representing the flight of life.