Ominous Energies Emanate at Ross Bay Cemetery

South Facing Biggerstaff Anglican Cross Grave Monument

 In the dusky twilight, silence settled onto the windswept Ross Bay cemetery. The sun had set before I was finished transcribing a new cross monument. I knelt, as if in prayer, at the base of a towering cross, teeth chattering, using the wavering light from my phone to double check the inscription at the base. 'Just two more to check, just two more.' I thought to myself, never mind that they were halfway across the cemetery.  A shiver worked its way through me, not merely because I was cold.

Our group had come to Ross Bay Cemetery a few days previously, in the afternoon, photographing, transcribing, and plotting cross monuments for our project. During this visit, the cemetery seemed a rather peaceful place, though one we should be respectful of. We had left just as the sun was setting, swapping creepy stories. Later in the week, I had volunteered to go back down to Ross Bay after realizing that a few of our transcriptions might be incomplete and to find one more ornamented and styled cross from the general section. A few hours later I was still at my computer, typing away on a different paper, finally looking away from the screen to realize how little daylight I had left. Scrambling for my camera, I rushed out of the house, calling my mum, to see if she wanted to come with me.

Once down at the cemetery, my search started off on a good note. I found a beautiful cross right away, in the general section, for the MacDonald family. It had been raining for the past three days and the ground was soggy, my shoes sinking into the ground with ever step, and there was a bitter smell upon the air. I walked past very recent burials and couldn't help but think of the bodies beneath the soil. My heartbeat quickened as the light dimmed and I rushed from one monument to the next, quickly, but thoroughly, checking the transcriptions, not giving the proper respect or heed to the graves. Oddly, as the shadows grew longer, the  lettering appeared larger and clearer. Inscriptions that I was unable to read on the previous visit stood out in bold lettering, " In loving memory of Arthur C Beeton....".

With the last rays of sun gone from the sky, I ran across the Anglican section to the Catholic for one final monument check. I bent down reading the last line, when suddenly I felt an overwhelming sleepiness descend upon me, felt that something was pulling me down, to keep me there. "I do not belong here. I need to get out. NOW!", I thought. It was as if I stayed one moment too long, that I was trespassing, but I couldn't move. My mum's voice called out to me, breaking my paralysis, "We need to leave!". One look told me she felt it too. We half ran all the way back to the car on the general side of the cemetery. Neither of us are particularly superstitious, but when we got home I spread salt across the threshold, burnt incense, and offered a wee dram of scotch to the spirits of the dead, to apologize for my offense.

Now Ross Bay Cemetery is well known for the paranormal experience, though I have never set much store in ghost hunter hokum. This experience, however, makes me rethink how I conducted myself that night. Perhaps I offended the dead, not being considerate of the graves and being there at an inappropriate time. After this project is complete, I intend to go back there with flower offerings to thank the spirits of the dead, whose monuments we analyzed for our project.

The reason for sharing this story is to remind us that the remains we study in archaeological work were at one time living breathing humans like ourselves and deserve proper respect by archaeologists.

The Way of the Cross: A Cross Grave Monument Analysis of Ross Bay Cemetery, Research Questions

1. What might the ornamentation and style of these cross grave markers reveal about the identity of the deceased?


2. Within the different religious areas, how does cross ornamentation and style vary? What might be the reason for the differences?


3. How is gender depicted on cross grave monuments? Differences?



View The Way of The Cross: A Grave Monument Analysis in Ross Bay Cemetery in a larger map

The Way of the Cross: A Cross Grave Monument Analysis of Ross Bay Cemetery

Grave Monument 1 - West Facing Beeton Cross Grave Monument

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Burial monuments have the potential for indicating societal relationships of the past when analyzed from an archaeological perspective. This project conducts a grave analysis of ornamented and/or styled cross grave monuments from the late 1800's to the early 1900's in Ross Bay Cemetery. Seventeen cross grave monuments were photographed, inscriptions transcribed and plotted. This information was then assimilated to explore possible indicators of identity, religious relationships, and gender generalities, as well as differences, of the individual buried there.

The Way of the Cross: A Cross Grave Monument Analysis Map

View The Way of The Cross: A Grave Monument Analysis in Ross Bay Cemetery in a larger map
 

Scope of Analysis:
 
           Ornamentation and style of these crosses from the late 1800's to early 1900's, both within and in relation to different religious sections, were compared. To do this 4 Anglican, 4 Catholic, 3 Presbyterian, 3 Methodist, and 3 general ornamented and styled cross grave monuments, 17 in total, were used in representative samples from each section. Methodist and Presbyterian sections did not have many examples of ornate or stylized crosses, limiting sample selection. We decided to focus on the ornamented and styled cross grave monuments because we could make more inferences regarding identity and religion, also excluding plain cross monuments to narrow our sample range.  As this analysis is based on a small sample size, interpretation of the cross monuments may not be completely accurate, a larger study would be required to pursue this information in more detail.

Research Question 1: What might the ornamentation and style of these cross grave markers reveal about the identity of the deceased?

          The cross monuments may demonstrate elements of the identity of the dead, including social status, descent, and religious identities. As ornamented or styled cross grave monuments would have been expensive and time consuming to make, the deceased or the family of the deceased may have been from a higher socio-economic status, such as the upper and upper middle classes (Garazhian and Yazdi, 2008:103). This is supported by grave monuments 4 and 9. Grave monument 4, the west facing Prior Cross grave monument, is associated with Honorable E. G. Prior, a judge, Lieutenant Governor, Colonel, and prominent figure in Victoria during his lifetime, as well as a member of the upper class of Victoria (Anon., 1920).

Grave Monument 4 - the West Facing Prior Cross Grave Monument

Grave monument 9, the west facing Douglas grave monument shown below, marks Sir James Douglas , who was a fur trader and governor of BC and had a high socio-economic status (Ormsby, 1971).

Grave Monument 9 - West Facing Douglas Cross Grave Monument

Identity can further be analyzed through style and design patterns. Twelve, 70.6%, of the seventeen ornamented and styled cross monuments were variations of the Celtic cross,  a cross with a ring circling the junction of Irish origin. This may indicate that the deceased was of Celtic descent or had Celtic familial affiliations, as design patterns on grave monuments may demonstrate kinship groups and the Celtic cross is often used to symbolize Irish, Scottish and Welsh heritage (Dethlefsen and Deetz, 1966: 502; Walker, 1997). The possibility of Celtic descent is supported by inscriptions on some of the Celtic cross monuments, such as grave monuments 5 and 11. Grave monument 5’s, east facing Dwyer grave monument in the Catholic section, inscription relates that Bridget Dwyer and Joeseph Dwyer were originally from Ireland, demonstrating a Celtic affiliation.

Grave Monument 5 - East Facing Dwyer Cross Grave Monument

Grave monument 11's, east facing Jack grave monument, inscription reveals that Agnes Main was born in Scotland, demonstrating that the deceased, Agnes Main, may have had Celtic heritage.

Grave Monument 11 - East Facing Jack Cross Grave Monument

Research Question 2: How is religious identity established through style of crosses and what are possible religious references on the ornamentation of crosses?

            The Celtic cross in the Anglican sections may also be indicative of religious identity. The Anglican section had the most Celtic cross monuments, possibly demonstrating the Anglican religious affiliations and origins in Celtic Christianity (Walker, 1997). Floral vine designs seen on the crosses of grave monuments 2, 4, 5, 6, and 17 may be religious references. They may represent the living relations hope that the deceased still exists, as flowers may be a symbol for the immortality of the soul (Council for Scottish Archaeology Carved Stones Adviser Project, 2006). The flowering vines may also reference a section in the Bible where Christ says,

"'I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes
to make it bear even more' (Stiver, n.d.)".

The vines on three cross grave monuments, grave monument 4, the west facing Prior grave monument, grave monument 5, the east facing Dwyer grave monument, and grave monument 17, the south facing MacDonald grave monument, also appear to be the passion fruit vine, which could possibly indicate a great love for the deceased or the passion of Christ. These vines may also be representative of gender.

Grave Monument 17 - South Facing MacDonald Cross Grave Monument

Research Question 3: How is gender depicted on cross  grave monuments? Differences

The manner in which genders are depicted display some evidence of general differentiation, perhaps indicating general gender statuses of this time period, when men had the authoritative positions in society. Of the seventeen cross grave monuments, sixteen have discernible gendered name inscriptions. Of these, five are single burial monuments, three for women,17.7%, and two, 11.8%, for men. Eleven represent multiple burials, seven, 41.2%, of which are male dominant and four, 23.5%, are female dominant. Gender dominance was determined by which gender's inscription appears at the top of the main inscription, takes up the majority of the available space, and/or utilizes a larger font. Grave monument 17, the south facing MacDonald grave monument, was considered to be female dominate, as the woman's name appears above her husband's name and her inscription takes up more space, while grave monument 9, the west facing Douglas grave monument, was considered male dominate, as a man's name appears by itself on the front of the monument, with his wife and children inscribed on the back and sides. Each female dominate cross grave monument inscription shows that the woman had died before the husband, which could possibly be why her name has predominance, as the husband's name was added to the monument later. This is not reflected completely in the male dominate cross monument inscriptions, as some monuments show that men who have died after their wives still have prominence, as is seen on grave monument 3, the west facing Todd grave monument, where the husband's, who died in 1899, inscription is on the front and his wife's, who died in 1866, name is on the back. There was no apparent gender dominate patterns within religious sects, as there seemed to be an even distribution. Over all, of the cross monuments selected, there are slightly more male and male dominated cross monuments, perhaps reflecting the gender hierarchy of the time.

Grave Monument 3 - West Facing Todd Cross Grave Monument

              There was no apparent gender dominate patterns within religious sects, as there seemed to be an even distribution. Over all, of the cross monuments selected, there are slightly more male and male dominated cross monuments, perhaps reflecting the gender hierarchy of the time.

The two genders were also treated differentially in regards to cross ornamentation, as many of female or female dominant crosses have floral decoration, while male and male dominant cross grave monuments do not, the only exception being the male dominate grave monument 6, the west Facing Penny cross grave monument, which does feature a flowered bough. This may suggest that flowers/and or plants were mainly associated with women.

As mentioned earlier, this is a small sample size this may not be an accurate representation. If I were pursuing this further, I would conduct a  larger study of gender representation on a large sample selection of all types of funerary monuments of the time period.

Grave Monument 6 - West Facing Penny Cross Grave Monument

Conclusion:

The ornamentation and styles of the cross monuments selected in Ross Bay Cemetery revealed possible social statuses, heritage, religious beliefs, relationships, gender status, and differential gendered associations of the dead. Large elaborate monuments indicated high social status of the individual they were made for. Celtic crosses revealed possible links to Celtic heritage and Anglican religious affiliations. The different status of genders in the time period may have been demonstrated by more male dominated cross monuments. These monuments demonstrate how identity, religion, male, and female, may continue on, in this case, a hundred years later. While graves keep many secretes they also hold clues to the identity and society of the people buried within them long after their death.

References

Council for Scottish Archaeology Carved Stones Adviser Project, 2006. An introduction to graveyard recording.[online] Council for Scottish Archaeology. Available at: <www.scottishgraveyards.org.uk/downloads/8Introductiontogr.pdf> [Accessed 3 February 2012].

Dethlefsen, E. and Deetz, J., 1966. Death's heads, cherubs, and willow trees: experimental archaeology in colonial cemeteries. American Antiquity, [journal] 31(4), 502-510. Available through: JSTORE [Accessed 3 February 2012].

Garazhian, O. and Yazdi, L.P., 2008. Mortuary practices in Bam after the earthquake. Journal of Social Archaeology, [journal] 8(1), 94-112. Available through: Sage Journal [Accessed 10 January 2012].

Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, 1920. Edward Gawler Prior obituary. [online](28 February 2001) Available at: <http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/premiers/prior_obit.html> [Accessed 8 February 2012].

Ormsby, M.A., 1971. Sir James Douglas. [online] Available at: <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/sir-james-douglas> [Accessed 8 February 2012].

Stiver, D. n.d., Vines. [online] Available at:<http://www.crosscrucifix.com/glossaryhome.htm> [Accessed 8 February 2012].

Walker, S., 1997. Celtic cross. [online] Available at: <http://www.celtarts.com/celtic.htm> [Accessed 12 February 2012].