Monday, 27 February 2012
A memo to the world...
I wish not to be buried. Cremation is the path for me. Scatter me in the sea so I may roam to the far reaching corners of the Earth for the rest of time. To be everywhere at once, how cool is that?
Monday, 20 February 2012
Questioning the Past
As a group assignment for Archaeology of the Dead, two classmates and I visited the Ross Bay cemetery to examine the graves of soldiers in the specific War Plot sections of the cemetery. There are two areas assigned with this title, one in the lower East corner and the other directly across in the lower West corner. There are two monuments erected in association with the graves in the Eastern corner of the cermetery commemorating the soldiers who fought and died in both World Wars. Our group noticed many interesting similarites and differences between the numerous soldier graves in both plot areas, and from there developed two research questions:
1. Why are the graves of these soldiers found in two seperate sections of the cemetery?
- This was puzzling to us, because the dates on the gravestones were similar as well as the overall design of the stones associated with the war graves. Some possible ideas we touched upon were the possibility that Space reserved for war soldiers in the Eastern corner was too little and the Western section was therefore over-flow or perhaps the land in the Western corner had already been purchased by the individual themself or by their family and the graves in the Eastern corner were therefore the individuals who had no final resting place.
2. The commonality of multiple individuals at a single grave in the Western corner versus only single individual graves in the Eastern plot of the cemetery, and why?
-To further back-up the point made about plots in the Western corner being bought by families is seen here. Many of the graves to the West have more than two individuals and in some cases, entire families. Graves to the East were all single individual graves, indicating that the land there was reserved for those who had fought in WWI or WWII.
These were only two of the many observations made, and I recomend looking at the map (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204947318620268261385.0004b84028b3297997c63) and checking out the cemetery for yourself. What other mysteries are there to be solved??
1. Why are the graves of these soldiers found in two seperate sections of the cemetery?
- This was puzzling to us, because the dates on the gravestones were similar as well as the overall design of the stones associated with the war graves. Some possible ideas we touched upon were the possibility that Space reserved for war soldiers in the Eastern corner was too little and the Western section was therefore over-flow or perhaps the land in the Western corner had already been purchased by the individual themself or by their family and the graves in the Eastern corner were therefore the individuals who had no final resting place.
2. The commonality of multiple individuals at a single grave in the Western corner versus only single individual graves in the Eastern plot of the cemetery, and why?
-To further back-up the point made about plots in the Western corner being bought by families is seen here. Many of the graves to the West have more than two individuals and in some cases, entire families. Graves to the East were all single individual graves, indicating that the land there was reserved for those who had fought in WWI or WWII.
These were only two of the many observations made, and I recomend looking at the map (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=204947318620268261385.0004b84028b3297997c63) and checking out the cemetery for yourself. What other mysteries are there to be solved??
-a map of our work done at Ross Bay Cemetery, looking at War graves and their similarities and differences.
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