Gravely Speaking

You say sarcophagi, I say sarcophaguses. Whichever way you say it, it means more than one sarcophagus.

Sarcophagus tombs are designed to look like coffins.  Most often they are set on a platform or a base.  The tomb is often embellished with ornamentation and nearly always has feet–but the “coffin” is empty–just an empty symbol of the receptacle.  This style of burial monument is ancient.

The word, sarcophagus, is derived from two ancient Greek words, sarx, which meant flesh and phagein meaning to eat.  The two words together, sarkophagus, meant flesh eating.  The term came from the limestone used by the ancient Greeks to bury the dead which was thought to decompose the flesh of the deceased.

The sarcophagi shown here are from the Mt. Auburn Cemetery at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The John Adams Blanchard sarcophagus features four winged cherubs, two on each side, embellish the footed tomb.  The winged cherub was a symbol that became popular in the 18^th Century.  Winged cherubs replaced the stark and morbid flying death’s heads from our Puritan forefathers.  The cherubs have a childlike countenance of innocence.  The iconography represents the flight of the soul from the body upward to Heaven and the hope of the resurrection.

Carved on top of the William and Lucy Howard Brown white marble sarcophagus is a great shock of wheat. Wheat’s origins are unknown but is the basis of basic food and a staple in many cultures. Because of wheat’s exalted position as a mainstay foodstuff, it is viewed as a gift from Heaven. Wheat symbolizes immortality and resurrection.  But, like many symbols found on gravestones, they can have more than one meaning.  For instance, because wheat is the main ingredient of bread, the sheaf of wheat can represent the Body of Christ.  Wheat can also represent a long life, usually more than three score and ten, or seventy years.

This sarcophagus was erected by the students of Professor John Hooker Ashmun, a testament to his connection to his teaching ability and personality. The tomb rests upon four lion’s feet, giving it an imposing feel.

This white marble sarcophagus was built for Waldo Merriam, a soldier who was killed in a battle. The top of the monument features the soldier’s hat and sword.

WALDO MERRIAM

LT. COL. 16 REG. MASS. VOLS.

BORN FEB. 23, 1839;

KILLED IN BATTLE MAY 12, 1864.

In 1928, the Georgia Marble Company of Tate, Georgia, produced a marketing piece in the form of a book titled, Memorials: To-Day for To-Morrow written by William Henry Deacy. The book was designed to showcase their memorial designs by highlighting them in the book with lush full-color watercolor illustrations of the various memorials. Along with the illustrations the book provided explanations of the symbolism found in the memorials. The book also coupled an architectural drawing of how the memorial is to be made.

The stele, a stone or wooden slab generally taller than it is wide and designed as a funeral commemorative, dates back many centuries and is one of the oldest forms of gravestones.  Many examples of steles can be found in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece. This example of a stele was created for Daisios, son of Euthias on the east coast of Attica in Southern Greece.  The stele dates to the middle of the 4^th Century B.C. and has two rosettes on the shaft and is topped with an acroterion motif. The acroterion motif is a stylized palm leaf, which can be found on classical Roman and Greek architecture.  The word acroterion comes from the Greek meaning summit.  This motif has its origins in Egyptian art and architecture.

The elegant 14 and a half foot tall Stony Creek granite stele below commemorating the graves of President William Howard Taft and his wife Helen Herron Taft was designed by James Earl Frazer.  Gold lettering states their names on the marker.

Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia

The stele below, found in the Green-Wood Cemetery, at Brooklyn, New York, was designed for A. H. Stobiber, the son of Felix and Helene Roux Stoiber. Stobiber was a New York resident born September 24, 1853, and died in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 9, 1916. While this stele does not have the proportions of a classical stele it does have the other elements—rosettes and the acroterion motif.

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

The entire booklet can be found at the Quarries and Beyond Website: http://quarriesandbeyond.org/cemeteries_and_monumental_art/cemetery_stones.html.

The Quarries and Beyond Website was created by Peggy B. and Patrick Perazzo. It focuses on historic stone quarries, stone workers and companies, and related subjects such as geology. Whenever possible links of finished products are provided on the Website. There is a “Quarry Articles” section that presents articles, booklets, and links from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including the 1856 “The Marble-Workers’ Manual.” The “Cemetery Stones and Monuments” section provides references and resources, including many old monument magazines, catalogs, price lists, and a photographic tour “From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments.”

In 1928, the Georgia Marble Company of Tate, Georgia, produced a marketing piece in the form of a book titled, Memorials: To-Day for To-Morrow written by William Henry Deacy. The book was designed to showcase their memorial designs by highlighting them in the book with lush full-color watercolor illustrations of the various memorials. Along with the illustrations the book provided explanations of the symbolism found in the memorials. The book also coupled an architectural drawing of how the memorial is to be made. The monument they chose to highlight on pages 62-64 was the obelisk.

After the French and British occupations of Egypt, there was a renewed interest in Egyptian architecture and symbolism in America, including the obelisk, those tall thin four-sided columns that tapered upward and then end in a pyramid at the top.  The obelisk is a ubiquitous gravestone shape found in American graveyards.

Beach Grove Cemetery, Muncie, Indiana

The author, Mr. Deacy, makes the following claim in the Georgia Marble Company book (page 63), “The steeple of the Church symbolizes the spiritual and uplifting power of religion and the moral aspiration of man. It was evolved from the obelisks which stood before Egyptian temple—emblems of the sun god Ra and the regeneration of man. It has long been a favored form for the civic and private memorial. Towering heavenward from a sightly (sic) location, the obelisk probably ranks among the most simple and impressive of all monuments.”

The book goes on to say that the obelisk is highlighted best when it is featured by itself, with no other monuments nearby to distract from its elegant and graceful shape. It also says that, “various pedestal forms are used to support the shaft or spire…and while they attain a rather graceful continuity of line, nevertheless, no type of base or support rivals the simple three steps, which if properly subordinated in scale, tend to increase the effect of height….”

Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The entire book can be found at the Quarries and Beyond Website: http://quarriesandbeyond.org/cemeteries_and_monumental_art/cemetery_stones.html.

The Quarries and Beyond Website was created by Peggy B. and Patrick Perazzo. It focuses on historic stone quarries, stone workers and companies, and related subjects such as geology. Whenever possible links of finished products are provided on the Website. There is a “Quarry Articles” section that presents articles, booklets, and links from the late 1800s to early 1900s, including the 1856 “The Marble-Workers’ Manual.” The “Cemetery Stones and Monuments” section provides references and resources, including many old monument magazines, catalogs, price lists, and a photographic tour “From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments.”