While many people use the terms graveyard and cemetery interchangeably, there are some important differences. A graveyard is a place where dead people are buried, while a cemetery is an area that holds many graves.
The re-use of grave sites within a cemetery often causes distress to families whose relatives were buried there. This is because they may believe that their loved ones are being desecrated.
Burial Ground
The burial ground is the location where gravestones are erected. Burial grounds are often smaller than cemeteries and can be found attached to churches. They usually have older tombstones and aren’t very well-maintained. Cemeteries, on the other hand, are larger and are independent of church property. They are designed for growth and can be home to multiple types of burials.
In Burial Ground, Professor Ayres (Benito Barbieri) discovers an ancient crypt underneath a massive mansion. Several couples arrive at the estate to have a weekend of fun. They soon find out that the house was built on a burial ground and is infested with zombies.
Andrea Bianchi’s 1981 Italian zombie movie dispenses with classic plot mechanisms to deliver a wild, gut-chomping good time. Severin Films’ 4K release adds to the film’s already impressive value with audio commentary and must-see deleted scenes. It also includes a t-shirt and pillowcase featuring the face of the film’s star Michael, with his eyes bugging out.
Churchyard
The churchyard is the burial ground adjacent to a church. Historically, wealthy congregants were interred inside the church in crypts and the less affluent were buried in the adjoining churchyard. The churchyard is also the place where worn-out or obsolete objects are kept, hence the name.
For many people, the churchyard is a special place of history and remembrance. Often the site is also a rare conservation area and as such it deserves our protection.
Churchyards have the potential to shed light on changing worldviews, tastes, sentiments, theologies and sculptural history at a local level. They can also provide valuable insights into socio-economic and demographic trends. They can help us understand what it means to be a part of a community and the values that are important to them. As such, they are a treasure trove of information. The key to unlocking this wealth of information is to know what questions to ask and how to interpret the results.
Cemetery
A cemetery is a plot of land intended for burial, often independent from a church. It can contain graves, tombs, above ground burial vaults, mausoleums, or columbaria. Generally, only members of the associated church can be interred in a graveyard, but sometimes restrictions are not in place.
Look for the way the cemetery is surrounded by walls and gates. Observe how the walls are built: are they fancy or plain, of local or imported materials? What does the design tell you about the beliefs of the inhabitants who buried here?
In the modern world, a cemetery may include a columbaria or niches for cremains. This change reflects our changing attitudes toward death. Rather than being seen as a depressing place to visit, many people now see it as a peaceful resting place. This is reflected in the landscape, where burial grounds are now more open and more often less formal with fewer stones and fewer visitors.
Gravestone
The terms headstone, gravestone, and tombstone are all used to refer to a memorial that marks the final resting place of a loved one. However, the differences between the three are important as the choice of a headstone is deeply personal and reflects an individual’s connection to a person.
Slate is a common stone for headstones, and takes incised details well, but is prone to delamination. It was a popular material for carvers in colonial America and is still a common stone in New England. It also has poor weathering resilience and is susceptible to erosion by acid rain and freeze/thaw cycles.
Granite gained popularity around the turn of the century and is the most common stone for headstones today. This igneous rock is composed of quartz, feldspar, and other interlocking materials such as mica and biotite. It is very hard and able to take intricate carvings. Geologists study these stone types to learn how they weather, which is useful in the selection and conservation of building stones.