Flowers and Bones: Approaches to the Dead in Anglo-American and Italian Cemeteries

Abstract

cui precor ut cineres sint violae sintque rosae' (I pray that his ashes may become violets and roses) -Roman EpitaphThe profusion of fresh flowers in Italian graveyards amazed nineteenthcentury travellers from America used to more severe practices. In England, too, flowers were sparse. Nor was their paucity unintentional. Strong sentiments were involved, for despite the increasing pomp of Victorian funerals, much ambivalence was displayed about elaborate rituals and offerings in the Anglo-American world-"a green grassy turf is all I crave," wrote Beattie in the Minstrel.' Even Loudon, the great architect of the new rural cemeteries in England, was reluctant to make a place for flowers in his plans. Today that difference persists. The vast tracts of comparatively bare cemeteries in the United States contrast with their compact and colourful counterparts in the continent of Europe. In the States there is also a difference between the north, especially the northeast, and the south, especially the southeast. In the former, one can expect one-twentieth of the graves to be decorated with flowers, fresh flowers; in the southeast today, the figure is about one-tenth, roughly the same as England, although the flowers are usually artificial. A change was already taking place in the mid-nineteenth centu-We wish to thank

Brief communication: The collection of identified human skeletons housed at the Bocage Museum (National Museum of Natural History), Lisbon, Portugal

“…Because the process of skeletal collecting is still in progress, it is expected that the collection will be further expanded. Basic documentary data (age at death, place of birth, occupation, place of residence, and date and cause of death) are more readily available for only 699 1 In much of southern Europe, skeletal remains are removed to rented burial plots or ossuaries after a period in a grave, which is then reused (e.g., Goody and Poppi, 1994;Musgrave, 1997 skeletons of the 1,552 individuals comprising the greater part of the collection. For now, only these 699 individuals are available for study.…”

The development of cemeteries in Portugal c.1755-c.1870

“…For example, in Hamburg in October 18 12 the French occupation government introduced legislation prohibiting intramural interment from 1st January 18 13, a law that was retained even after the French withdrew (Whaley,198 1). In Bologna in 1801 the French opened what was to be the city's largest cemetery and established burial regulations in accordance with Prairial: the cemetery is still in use (Goody and Poppi, 1994). By contrast, French attempts to establish a new cemetery in Rome, a much more conservative city, were strongly resisted (Nylander, 1989).…”

Defining the place of burial: What makes a cemetery a cemetery?

“…Early cemeteries offered burial rights`in perpetuity' , granting families rights over burial plots from which the remains would never be removed. In much of Southern Europe, skeletal remains are removed to such plots after a period in a grave which is then reused (Goody & Poppi, 1994). However, in Britain after the Reformation and in the USA, the overt reuse of graves did not become part of the burial culture: burial rights granted in perpetuity guaranteed that graves would never be disturbed and the remains would stay intact.…”