Last week, my group project for the monument analysis focused on Ross Bay Cemetery. It's a well-known, beautiful cemetery in southern Victoria, right on the water. Our original dataset was to only look at humanoid monuments, particularly angels, however, statue-like grave markers were few and far between, so we had to adjust our dataset accordingly. We included adjacent obelisks and urn monuments contemporary with the statue monuments near it.
All the statues my group did come across were all from roughly the same time period. They were all erected in the 1800s and few had any burials more recent than the mid 1900s. They were all group burials, large families. What factor would lead a family to chose this particular kind of monument to mark their loved ones' burials? Could it have something to do with the family background? Additionally, not all the figures were religious icons. Attached below is a picture of the Deans' family memorial. The figure on the top is a female wearing a crown, an anchor sits by her left side.
The majority of the memorials featured statues belonged to families with English or Scottish last names, except for one Italian family, leading me to believe that religion did not play a huge part in whether they chose a more religious figure or not. Ross Bay cemetery itself is divided up by different religions, and our dataset was quite closely clustered together, further supporting the idea that there was little differentiation of religious observation.
Further, what is the difference between the family burials featuring a statue and the others we analysed featuring urns and obelisk? Could it be an indication of the treatment of the dead, if the urn is marking a cremation, but what if the urn does not mean cremation? Depicted on the left is an urn seen adjacent to the Deans' memorial featured above. Judging from the ground underneath the monument, it is possible that inhumations are associated with this burial. What would be the significance of an urn monument if not to mark a cremation? Perhaps this particular set of plots has a combination of inhumations and cremations.
Here is a link to another website that describes the various symbols seen in Victorian Graveyards. Although not a academic source, it helps shed light on why various objects are used as grave markers, such as the urn. However, as it is assumed, that the urn is used to symbolize cremation.
All of the monuments our group looked at indicated family burials, despite the varying grave markers. Although these monuments alone left us with numerous questions, it would be interesting to be able to compare with other Victorian cemeteries to see if similar patterns could be found.
Our map of Ross Bay includes markers for the monuments we looked at, pictures of them, and the inscriptions written on the monuments.
Further,
this article describes the evolution of Victorian cemeteries in BC, specifically referring to Ross Bay and its famous family monuments. The article speaks of how monuments were used for individuals families in the late 1880s, similar to the ones in our dataset.
