cemetery symbols
Symbols are objects that carry secondary meaning. Usually they represent abstract concepts or ideologies of a particular culture so understanding them depends on the viewer’s knowledge of that culture. For example, a broken tree is a common symbol of death. But, on a stone in a Massachusetts cemetery is a carving of a fallen tree beside a standing tree. Near the fallen tree is an ax and looking out from under this tree is a face. By reading the accompanying epitaph it becomes clear that this picture is not symbolic but literal. The deceased died when the tree he was chopping fell on him. (Buffalo, 2017)