| « Previous | Home | Next » | Cherub Monday, December 12, 2005 |
 For anyone familiar with New England (or even Charleston, South Carolina) cemeteries from the late 17th through the 18th century, you are probably aware of the ornate carvings often done on the head stones. Perhaps less familiar, unless you happened to study them or read a classic little textbook called Introduction to Archeology by Jim Deetz, is the fact that there was a gradual transition in styles from the early stones that depicted a gruesome skull -- called a 'Death's Head' -- to the more angelic 'Cherub' design. The relative frequency of these motifs can be used to demonstrate a basic principal of archaeology called seriation, in which numbers of particular artifacts can provide a clue about the relative date of a site. Oh... sorry, I was slipping into my Graduate Assistant memories. This picture was taken in a cemetery in Bennington Vermont. Pretty much all cherubs in this location. But some of the graveyards in the Boston area are well known for their death's head. Modern air pollutants have taken their toll on the carvings, however. And even the seemingly innocuous pasttime of gravestone rubbing has negatively affected many of the finer old stones. I should note that this picture was taken in August with my Fuji Finepix S3100. I adjusted levels, converted to B&W with the Channel Mixer, blurred the background in PS, increased contrast, and sharpened a lot -- some may say oversharpened , but I was going for a very stark effect. | |
|
Posted by forgingahead Archived under: Found Things |
Permalink | Comment (16) |
forgingahead
 |  |  |  |
