Grave communications: how an understanding of gravedigging practices informs post-medieval cemetery excavations and interpretations

Abstract

SUMMARY: This paper examines the contemporary role of the gravedigger, their day-to-day working practices, and how these tasks can impact the archaeological record. The study was undertaken through conducting semi-structured interviews with 16 practising and recently retired gravediggers from in and around Bristol. These interviews revealed that gravediggers not only dig graves but also facilitate funerals, bury coffins, reopen graves for subsequent burials, exhume human remains and curate material culture both within the graves and around the grave plots. The gravediggers also perform important emotional labour in their interactions with the dead and with their families. This evidence demonstrates that gravediggers heavily impact the archaeological record in cemetery contexts and play an important part in the social organisation around funerary practices in the British Isles. Although this role has likely changed considerably over time, these interviews still demonstrate that present-day archaeologists must consider the role and impact of gravediggers when analysing post-medieval cemetery landscapes. In addition, this information can act as guidance for future archaeologists when excavating cemetery sites and churchyards.