Beyond Famous Men and Women: Interpreting Historic Burial Grounds and Cemeteries

Abstract

Cemeteries and burial grounds are major resources for historical archaeology, each containing hundreds if not thousands of individual monuments which are still visible, and a vast below-ground archaeology of burials with their fittings and funerary architecture in the form of catacombs, vaults and burial shafts. The preservation and management of such sites is an important element of CRM, associated as they are with emotions and identities in current populations (Bell, 1996). It is in this light that interpretation takes on a special role. The sites already have an importance to a wide range of people in the local community, but many of the historic and anthropological aspects of their value are not perceived and appreciated. Through communicating these aspects, individuals and communities may come to appreciate more such assets and protect them, which can in turn reduce vandalism and degradation. The public may also comprehend more fully the ways in which archaeologists understand the past through their study of material culture. Emphasis is given here to public interpretation rather than the use of graveyards in education. Many of the interpretative themes suggested here have not been offered to a wider public despite being explicitly addressed within curriculum development (Duca, 1974; Hill and Mays, 1987; Christie, 1991; Purkis, 1995; Mytum, 2000). Most urban cemeteries were established in the nineteenth century to provide suitable burial spaces for the growing populations of the increasingly industrialised cities (Curl, 1972; Brooks, 1989; Sloane, 1991). The motivations varied greatly for the establishment of burial grounds away from the control of the established church. Often a number of factors combined, but frequently included the provision of a less overcrowded burial environment with consequent improvements in health (Mytum, 1989), the ability of religious and ethnic minorities to have appropriate burial (Rugg, 1998), the creation appropriate landscapes for commemoration (Bender, 1974; Linden-Ward, 1989), and making a profit (Sloane, 1991). Rural burial grounds for whole communities, particular religious groups, or individual families, all have opportunities for interpretation on an appropriate scale. 25 Beyond Famous Men and Women: Interpreting Historic Burial Grounds and Cemeteries