Cemetaries and Cemetary Symbols: “Exploring the meaning of cemetery symbols and other graveyard mysteries. For genealogy sleuths, taphophiles and goth kids” [Amy’s note: links added].

Via Neat New Stuff On The Web.

Posted by Amy as Death at 1:39 AM EDT

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If, like me, you enjoy roaming through cemeteries and reading the gravestones, check out The Epitaph Browser.

The epitaphs collected here are from the gravestones of well-known people (e.g. Mel Blanc, John Gay, Emily Dickinson) and those who are anonymous or who are only well known for their epitaph.

One example of the latter is Mary Ann Weems of Godmanchester, England:

To the Young of both Sexes
This Stone is erected by public Subscription over the remains of MARY ANN WEEMS who at an early age became acquainted with THOMAS WEEMS formerly of this Parish this connextion [sic] terminating in a compulsory Marriage occasioned him soon to desert her and wishing to be Married to another Woman he filled up the measure of his iniquity by resolving to murder his Wife which he barbarously perpetrated at Wendy on their Journey to London toward which place he had induced her to go under the mask of reconciliation May the 7th 1819 He was taken within a few hours after the crime was committed, tried and subsequently executed at Cambridge on the 7th of August in the same Year

Ere Crime you perpetrate survey this Stone
Learn hence the God of Justice sleeps not on his Throne
But marks the Sinner with unerring Eye
The suffering Victim hears and makes the Guilty die

Not all of the epitaphs are this long; consider the following for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Steel True, Blade Straight.

Via Tech_Space.

Posted by Amy as Death at 1:43 AM EDT

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If you’re interested in searching for your ancestors or looking at places of interest connected to famous people, you’ll be interested in Find A Grave.

At this site you can “Find the graves of ancestors, create virtual memorials, add ‘virtual flowers’ and a note to a loved one’s grave, etc.” You can also “See the graves of thousands of famous people from around the world.”

In the famous people section, in addition to the photos of the graves, there may also be a biography and shots of other items of interest (e.g. Jane Austen’s page also has a photo of the house where she spent her last days).

Posted by Amy as Death at 1:36 AM EDT

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Here’s an unusual sight: the King’s Capuchins’ Catacombs of Palermo, Italy.

This location, a popular tourist stop in Palermo, contains the mummified bodies of numerous corpses of people who died from 1599 to 1920. Here’s the explanation from the site:

The catacombs date back to the 1599 when the local priests mummified a holy monk for all to see. They wanted to pray to him after death.

In time the locals wanted their relatives remembered in this same way. Soon there were hundreds of corpses. Some of the deceased wrote wills, expressing the clothes in which to bury them in. Some asked to have their clothes changed over a period of time. Included in the catacombs are hundreds of coffins as well. Some contain the corpse that was buried in them. The side is sometimes cut to expose the deceased.

I find it interesting that this appears to be such a popular tourist attraction.

Via The Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society.

Posted by Amy as Death, Unusual, Travel at 10:33 AM EST

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The U.S. National Library of Medicine has put up an interesting online exhibition called Dream Anatomy.

This exhibition catalogues the visions that those in the middle ages (and earlier) had of our anatomy—not just the reality that could be seen, but the imagination that was applied to it.

Here’s the explanation for the exhibition from the opening page:

The interior of our bodies is hidden to us. What happens beneath the skin is mysterious, fearful, amazing. In antiquity, the body’s internal structure was the subject of speculation, fantasy, and some study, but there were few efforts to represent it in pictures. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century-and the cascade of print technologies that followed-helped to inspire a new spectacular science of anatomy, and new spectacular visions of the body. Anatomical imagery proliferated, detailed and informative but also whimsical, surreal, beautiful, and grotesque — a dream anatomy that reveals as much about the outer world as it does the inner self.

This exhibition is imaginative and varied, ranging from a discussion of fine art and anatomy to a mention of bodysnatching to the introduction of the X-Ray.

Posted by Amy as Death, Science & Nature at 5:13 AM EST

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Paris: the city that has the Eiffel Tower, rude waiters, the Champs Elysees, and much more.

Now I find out that it also has underground tunnels with stacks and stacks of human bones. You can check it out at Underground Paris: A Virtual Tour.

Here’s the site description:

Far below the city streets of Paris, in the quiet, damp darkness, seven million Parisians lie motionless. Their skeletons, long since dis-interred from the churchyard graves their survivors left them in, are neatly stacked and aligned to form the walls of nearly one kilometer of walking passage.

Welcome to the Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary– The Empire of the Dead.

This site is gruesomely fascinating.

Via Weblog V2.

Posted by Amy as Death, Unusual, Travel at 5:49 AM EDT

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Well, here’s a way to start your day off with a twist: The Death Psychic.

This site offers you a forecast for how you will meet your end. Type in your name, age, and sex, click on the button, and presto! A prediction of how you will die.

Here’s mine (warning: gruesome):

“An improperly hung ceiling fan falls from above you while it’s running. The fast-moving blades slice through your neck with ease, launching your head across the room.”

Sigh. O.K.—I’ll be on the watch.

Via Yahoo! Picks.

Posted by Amy as Death, Fluffy Stuff at 4:25 AM EDT

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Do Cemetery Plots Have Expiration Dates?

Well, that’s certainly a question that I never thought to ask before. However, the extensive write-up at that link covers many topics relating to cemeteries, such as the following:

· “will we run out of room?”
· “what rights do you have in a cemetery plot?”
· “how do they maintain cemeteries?”
· “what happens to abandoned cemeteries?”

Much of the information is U.S. based, but the author points out where practices vary around the world.

Via The Straight Dope.

Posted by Amy as Death at 4:24 AM EDT

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Despite its morbid name, The Blog of Death is a site I plan to visit regularly.

This blog posts fairly complete obituaries on famous people who have died. Recently, Octavia Butler, Don Knotts, and Dana Reeves have been featured.

This blog also featured an obituary on Andreas Katsulas, the actor whose death was (I think) under-reported in the blogosphere.

Via Word Pangs through Books, Inq.

Posted by Amy as Death, Blogs and Bloggers at 12:33 AM EST

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The Death Clock site bills itself as “The Internet’s friendly reminder that life is slipping away.”

The site gives you a place to fill in your height, weight, sex, and body mass index, and then calculates how much longer you have to live (barring the unexpected).

According to this site, my day of death is Saturday, 27 February, 2038, at which time I’d be 77.

This site is a little more popular than I would have guessed, given the morbid nature of the subject. You can buy Death Clock T-shirts or download a Death clock screensaver.

There is also a list of death-related quotations; here’s one by Jean Cocteau:

“Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk.
It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”

Posted by Amy as Death at 4:33 AM EST

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