Children's Grave's In Ross Bay Cemetery

View Children's Graves Ross Bay Cemetary in a larger map


1.  Our data set was children's graves in Ross Bay Cemetery.  Originally we started out with 21 graves and these were whittled down to 12 graves.  The time period of the graves was from the late 1800's to the early 1900's.

2.  What we were trying to discover with this monument analysis was the images associated with children's graves.  As well as the time period these graves were located in and the area they were located in the cemetery.

3.  In answer to the first question there appear to be many symbols representing innocence and purity located on the graves; such as lambs, children, angles, a rose bud as well as a baby chair with baby footies sitting on the chair.   All of these images were associated in the Victorian era with innocence, purity and childhood (Corbin, 2010).  However, there were several graves which did not have such markers, like the Japanese graves, which have a five petaled flower which I am not sure is just a generic picture of a flower or whether there is a symbolism behind that.  Another one which appears to be different is Grave 12, as this one has a wreath and a flower of some plant I cannot identify, though probably has a symbolic value as most plants did in the Victorian era.  As well it should be noted that not all of the markers have any images on the graves, some are simply markers with the name of child, their age at death and a saying which the parents wished to have inscribed on the grave.

It was noted that the children's grave's we looked at were all in either the late 1800's or early 1900's, the exceptions being when family members were reunited after the death of another member.  Other than that these graves are almost 100 years old, as we were walking in the older part of the cemetery.  It was interesting to note the number of children's graves located in the older section of the cemetery, for the mortality rate was higher in the Victorian and Edwardian era's.  This was mainly caused by the poor nutrition and the economic circumstances of living in a colonial town (Bell, Millward, 2001).



Works Cited:
Corbin, Arthur. 2010. 'In Memoriam...Victorian Cemetery Photos' Available from:
<http://www.inmemoriam.nu/index.php?p=1_45_A-guide-to-Victorian-Cemetery-Symbolism>.[Febuary 11, 2011]

Frances Bell & Robert Millward 2001, "Infant Mortality in Victorian Britain: The Mother as Medium", Economic History Review, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 699-733.

Oprah

 I was looking at a video for another anthropology class and came across this video.
 http://www.theonion.com/video/oprah-invites-hundreds-of-lucky-fans-to-be-buried,18443/
It reminded me of what we were talking about in class last week about status and the different kinds there are and someone mentioned celebrity status.  Now if there is a celebrity of the 20th and 21st century its Oprah.  Her empire is worth millions if not a billion dollars and people love her and take her word literally with everything she says and does.

While watching this video I couldn't help it but wonder if this were true what would happen in several thousand years when all knowledge of Oprah is gone and archaeologists open up her tomb and discover her in a sarcophacus with hundreds of dead women lying out in front of her.  What would they think of her? or those other women who are layed out in front of her?

Most likely they will think of her as a queen, for the amount of material goods left within her grave would be enourmas, though maybe not luxourious.

My interest however is more how the archaeologists would look at those women who are buried with Oprah.  They would probably consider them to be servants, slaves or even members of her household who where either forced to or chose to die with their queen.  It may be infered by the placement of the bodies that they are lying in wait for her, as they would be displayed in front of her in what may appear to be a chamber.  Also it would be interesting from the archaeologists point of view that all of the women would be quite similar in age to each other.

By looking at the spoof of our own pop culture as well as how burial practices are viewed not only by the scientific community but also the public we can see that we may infer things about people or culture simply because we believe that a high status individual has a lot of grave goods and may have others buried with them to assist them in the after life is just one interpretation.