South Burying Ground Analysis

The history behind South Burying Ground in Concord, MA is an interesting one. In 1636, the citizens of Concord constructed a meeting house and next to that meetinghouse was a cemetery known as Old Hill Burying Ground. This cemetery was the only one in the entire town until 1697. In 1697, a circulating superstition stated that it was bad luck to transport a corpse across the water. During this time period, the people who lived on the south side of town had no choice but to transport their dead across the water in order to get to the town cemetery. This led to the establishment of a second cemetery, this one was on the south side of the mill brook and became known as South Burying Ground. South Burying Ground, when viewed in comparison to Old Hill Burying Ground, is relatively small. It has around 300 graves, all of which date from 1697 to 1860 and are arranged in a way similar to other cemeteries during that time period. At the southern edge of the cemetery, …show more content…
Lot Conant. Like many of the graves in that cemetery, it contained the basic information about the deceased (name, date of death, and age) as well as a short inscription at the bottom of the stone. What was unique about this particular stone, was the age at which Mr. Conant died as well as the inscription found at the top of the stone. Mr. Conant died at the age of 90, a feat which was nearly impossible to accomplish during that time period due to the lack of hygiene and medical advances. At the top of the gravestone was the phrase “Memento mori” which is Medieval Latin for “remember death.” this phrase was found on some, but not all of the graves. In Medieval Rome, this idea has to do with the reflection on morality, mostly as a means of considering the fragility and temporary nature of earthly goods. This ancient inscription correlates with the Puritan practice of not putting monatery value on anything but rather living life in the way God