Gravers : what bonds old bones

by Lande Jewels

Did you know that, seen from archaeological perspective, London soil is a layer cake with evidence dating as far as Neolithic era through to Bronze and Iron ages, Roman, Medieval, Post Medieval and Contemporary period? Much can be learned of the social context and culture by how those populations treated and disposed of their dead, how beliefs and rituals shaped their practices and how material wealth affected their final home. This one of a kind companion to London famous cemeteries, crypts, catacombs, churchyards and burial traditions, written in original elegantly illustrated verse, makes accessible and lightens the otherwise somber subject.‘Gravers’ takes the reader through burial traditions of pre-Roman London, Londinium, Lundenwic and the modern Big Smoke. The practice of using collective barrows, chamber tombs, ring ditches, cremation pyres, catacombs, crypts, cemeteries and crematoriums is eloquently related through illustrated, artfully crafted verse. Take a journey to the Magnificent Seven Victorian Abney Park, Brompton, Highgate, Kensal Green, Nunhead, Tower Hamlets, West Norwood and spot rare mildew, great trees, multitude of bird special and lively small mammals inhabiting shelters created by crumbling tombs and thick overgrowth. Admire the funerary art of thoughtfully commissioned by Victorian mourners, pay respects to impressive mausolea, find elaborate sculptures of lions and dogs, pause to read the epitaphs, notice how contemporary choices have changed. Continue to the tunnels of catacombs where lead coffins occupy rows or shelves. Descend into church crypts and see the preservation efforts, the transformation to cafes and galleries and wonder at the relics at St Brides Charnel House and learn that St Paul’s Charnel House was cleared to form a bone hill, lending the name to Bunhill Fields, a Dissenters burial ground in the City. As the journey takes the reader to City of London Cemetery, one finds a letterbox int

80 pages, Paperback

Published October 21, 2024