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) Photo from Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia, 2025.