Why Do We Have Headstones?

Almost every cemetery in the world is full of markers. Why do we put them up? The short answer is that people have done so for thousands of years, to remember, to locate, and to show that a life mattered. This article gives the history.

What is a headstone for?

To remember someone, and to find them. A European research news article on the history of tombstones says that as grave markers, they offer a focus for mourning and commemoration. A historic cemetery’s history sheet says ancient stelae marked the location of a person’s grave.

How old is the custom?

Very old. In the CORDIS article, funerary archaeologist Saša Čaval says that numerous Neolithic stone statues called stelae, about 5,000 years old, were found in Ukraine and Moldova, and that there are Bronze Age stone and wooden markers on mounds. She notes that the Greeks buried commoners and elites in marked graves. The first epitaphs as we know them, especially the formula “Here lies,” come from the Greek tradition, and the Romans adopted it. The history sheet shows a Greek funerary stele from about 340 BCE, now at the Harvard Art Museums, for a girl of about seven.

When did markers become common in Europe and America?

In the 1600s. The cemetery’s history says that in the mid-17th century churchyard burials became popular, and the use of a marker to identify the exact location of a specific grave became more widespread. These markers were simple, usually recording names and dates only. A second sheet explains that among the earliest European settlers in North America, almost none were professional stoneworkers, so loved ones marked the grave themselves. Later, experienced carvers brought decoration and epitaphs, and a library of symbols developed to show religion, social class, and occupation.

What is a tablet stone?

The most common early American marker. The second sheet says it is a single piece of cut stone set upright at one end of a grave, usually small and made from softer local stone such as sandstone, slate, and limestone. About a third of its mass was sunk into the ground, with no foundation.

What do the words mean?

They have shifted. Wikipedia says a tombstone was originally the stone lid of a stone coffin, or the coffin itself, and a gravestone was a flat slab laid over a grave. Now all the terms are also used for markers set upright at the head of a grave. It adds that because stones and plots cost money, they are also a symbol of wealth or prominence.

Why stone?

Because it lasts. The CORDIS article says suitable stone has been relatively easy to find and transport, it can be decorated, and it endures weather and time. That also explains why other kinds of markers have been lost. For the words on stones, see What Gravestones Say, for materials, Why Are Headstones Usually Granite?, and for the bigger picture, The History of the American Cemetery.