Photo: #Mary Benton Hummel gives walking tours of the cemeteries in Ramsey County. She can tell you all about the grave markers as well as the people buried under them.
Photo: #Older cemeteries often have mazes at the entrance. It was believed that ghosts could only travel in straight lines and so winding mazes were used to prevent the spirits of the deceased from returning to the community to harm the living.
Photo: #Children's graves were often topped with carvings of lambs or doves. These monuments were typically made from sandstone because it was the easiest stone to carve. Unfortunately, it was also the quickest to erode.
Photo: #Throughout history, the dead have been buried in the ground. Even Neanderthals were known to bury their dead. Researchers have uncovered carefully arranged graves with skeletons dating back to Paleolithic times.
Photo: #Gravestones in the shape of tree trunks can be found throughout Twin Cities cemeteries. They symbolize the idea of the family tree. The broken branch at the top represents the fact that the family was damaged by the loss of their loved one.
Photo: #The hat on this tree indicates that the deceased was a young school boy when he died.
Photo: #People used to place tombstones on top of graves to prevent the dead from escaping. For most of history, gravestones weren't marked and there was no indication of just who was buried under them. The idea of using a tombstone to memorialize the deceased didn't really take off until the 1600s.
Photo: #It's said that death is the great leveler. But, really, class and social status were often carried to the grave. Obelisks like this one typically indicate that the person buried under them played a prominent role in society.
Photo: #In many cemeteries, graves are oriented in such a manner that the body lies facing east. Some say this custom originates with Pagan sun worshippers, but it's primarily attributed to Christians, who believe that the final call to judgement will come from the east.
Photo: #Some of our customs for honoring the dead actually stemmed from a fear of spirits. Funeral bells and wailing chants were originally used to scare away other ghosts at the cemetery.
Photo: #The bluish monuments in the cemetery were carved from zinc. They held their own even in the worst weather. But the government put an end to this type of grave marker during World War II because it needed zinc for the war effort.
Photo: #Many cemeteries set aside an area they called Bablyland. As the name indicates, it was the section where all the infants were buried. Some said this was done so all the babies could be together in the afterlife. Others said it was just a way for cemeteries to maximize space.
Photo: #For generations, graveyards were in churchyards. Today, though, they can pop up just about anywhere. Some are tucked in suburban neighborhoods. Others hug rural corn fields. Many are located on the fringes of downtown.
Photo: #For many generations, gravestones were elaborate monuments. Some say the move to simple slabs of granite was sparked by the Vietnam War. At that time, people didn't want to deal with the idea of death and they turned to more subdued stones. Others say the modern-day cemeteries were the brainchild of the caretakers, who knew it was much easier to mow between flat, standardized stones that it was to maneuver around towering statues and elaborate monuments.
Photo: #Cemeteries may hold the dead. But they're often reflections of the living. As Benjamin Franklin put it, "Show me your cemetery and I'll tell you who you are."

Audio

Death Becomes Us

Throughout history, civilizations have developed ways to deal with and honor the dead. From embalming to cremation, funeral services to burial ceremonies, the rituals of death tell us a lot about the living. What do our customs say about our society? And how do our practices shape the way we view our final fate?

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Death Becomes Us

Graveyard shifts

by Nikki Tundel, Minnesota Public Radio
May 21, 2007

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They've been called cities of the silent. But cemeteries actually tell us a lot about society.

St. Paul, Minn. — In some ways, wandering through a cemetery is like walking along a timeline.

Cemeteries evolved dramatically throughout history. And changes in graveyards often reflected changes in society.

Reporter Nikki Tundel explores the origins of our modern day resting places and takes a tour of a St. Paul cemetery to find out what it says about the city.

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