Colonial-era designs

America's oldest grave markers are made of the kinds of stone that could be cleaved or sawn into approximately 2-inch-thick slabs - slate, schist, marble, and sandstone. The symbols representing death, fleeting time, and re-birth carved into the stone were more important than the inscriptions because few people could read. Even some of the carvers were illiterate. Click here for explanation of the symbols.


Winged Skull

Winged Faces

Two-bone skull

Big-nose carver

Human likeness

Rising Sun

Words & letters

Fieldstone

Semi-skull

holding place










Remember me















By the grace of Milonic, Amen. Dec 5