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

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