sugartown

so. recent fieldwork has involved roaming around cemeteries in coastal towns searching for gravestones dedicated to the memory of people lost at sea. while it feels like i'm tricking everyone by getting a grant to wander in the sunshine and check out the ocean while ostensibly doing research, the trick seems to now be on me as the combination of salty sea air and time has resulted in SUGARING- the words (and sculptures) on many of the older headstones are wearing away to the point of illegibility. that's making the search for the words "lost at sea" rather difficult. it is, however, also causing bizarre decapitations that caught my fancy...
oak grove cemetery, gloucester, MA






a recurring symbol in cemetery sculptures, a lamb or child 'sleeping'/lying down on top of a headstone denotes the grave of a child. the symbol references the 'lamb of god,' or the notion that the deceased is in their final resting/sleeping place, innocently slumbering. this euphemism was a common one for death when garden cemeteries were showing up on the scene, around 1840 or so.