Sorry to be late to the party. Don’t recall anyone mentioning this, but forgive me if someone has. Here is a paraphrase from a paper David Bruner, Robert Marcom and I published in 2008 (McDavid, Bruner and Marcom 2008).
Reversed letters and texts also exist on grave markers and features in African American cemeteries, with at least three in South Texas: the Olivewood Cemetery (Houston’s oldest recorded African American cemetery), the College Park Cemetery in Houston, and the Juden Cemetery (the graveyard for individuals who worked on the Levi Jordan Plantation, in Brazoria, Texas) (Bruner 1996, 2007). Research conducted by David Bruner into the symbolism of inversion in the Kongo belief system suggested that reversed and upside down script may be intentional (see Bruner 1996; Thompson 1983:142).
I also seem to recall that Carrel Cowan-Ricks noted these in a talk one time, as she was discussing her 1990s research (but I could be wrong – it’s been 20 years). Her papers are now located at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. The link to the finding aid is:
http://thewright.org/archives/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/MSS114.pdf
I’m sure her papers would be extraordinarily useful to researchers of African American life. She was a meticulous, thorough researcher until her tragically early death in 1997, and focused particularly on research in African American cemeteries.
Also, at least two examples of reverse writing were also found on tiled street markers in Houston’s Freedmen’s Town (photo available on request or see McDavid, Bruner and Marcom 2008). Bruner has photos of the other examples from African American cemeteries.
In short, I doubt these reversed and upside-down letters are a result of illiteracy in all instances.
· Bruner, David. 1996. Hidden Power: Burial Practices from an African-American Slave and Tenant Community. Master's Thesis, Anthropology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
· Bruner, David. 2007. Symbols for the Living: Synthesis, Invention, and Resistance in 19th to 20th Century Mortuary Practices from Montgomery County and Harris County, Texas. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton, Binghamton, NY.
· McDavid, Carol, David Bruner, and Robert Marcom. 2008. "Urban Archaeology and the Pressures of Gentrification: Claiming, Naming, and Negotiating “Freedom” in Freedmen’s Town, Houston." Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society no. 79/2008 (October):37-52.
· Thompson, Robert Farris. 1983. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art & Philosophy. New York: Vintage Books.
Cheers,
Carol
*****************************
Carol McDavid, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Community Archaeology Research Institute, Inc.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Rice University
Co-editor, Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ycah20/current)
1638 Branard
Houston, TX 77006
www.publicarchaeology.org/CARI
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Stine
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 11:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Backward Lettering on Gravestone
I have seen the same kind of lettering on stones for an 18th-19th c. German and German-American cemetery in the NC Piedmont, Steiner's or Stoner's cemetery, Alamance County. It is only true for the early hand-made stones.
LFS
On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 4:09 PM, Bob Skiles < <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Sticks & Stones: Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers
> (Margaret Ruth Little, 1998)
> <https://books.google.com/books?id=wb7fAAAAMAAJ&q=%22backwa
> rd+letters%22+tombstone&dq=%22backward+letters%22+
> tombstone&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRvu2HwanSAhVIYyYKHSX7D2YQ6AEIOTAF>
>
> p151 "Clodfelter is the only German stonecutter in North Carolina
> known to have signed a/gravestone/. ... Furthermore, the misspelling
> and/backward letters/are typical of the lettering on many German
> stones throughout the county."
>
>
> On 2/24/2017 12:52 PM, Linda Derry wrote:
>
>> Pete,
>>
>> I'd put my money on illiteracy, but here is another idea you could
>> research since Maryland was an entry point for many Germans. Part of
>> my family came into America through Maryland and settled in Virginia
>> and moved west through Pa., Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and so forth. Some
>> of my early ancestors practiced German folk magic or medicine.
>> Something often called "Pow-wow." There are many old Pow-Wow
>> practice books reprinted and available today (even some in English)
>> so you could look there for something on backward writing.
>>
>> This, of course is a long shot, because O'Neal is not a very German
>> sounding name, but you never know who might have married into the family!
>>
>>
>>
>> Linda Derry
>> Site Director, Old Cahawba Archaeological Park Alabama Historical
>> Commission
>> 9518 Cahaba Road, Orrville, AL 36767
>> park: 334/ 875-2529
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 6:12 AM, Pete Regan < <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Does anyone out there have information on the potential meaning of
>>> backward characters on gravestones? I have a crudely carved
>>> gravestone in a nineteenth century, family plot that was part of a
>>> central Maryland farm, with all of the D's, N's, J's, and 1's carved
>>> backward. Plenty of folks have suggested dyslexia or partial
>>> illiteracy as potential explanations, but I have a few
>>> archaeologist/historian colleagues who seem to recall that backward
>>> orthography can have specific meanings on gravestones. For what it's
>>> worth, here's the text as it appears on the stone (again, picture
>>> the aforementioned letters backward):
>>>
>>> WM ONEAL
>>> DIED.JAN
>>> THE.1.1893
>>> AGE.72.
>>>
>>> The stone appears as the final photo in the larger site's state
>>> registration form, located here: <https://mht.maryland.gov/> https://mht.maryland.gov/
>>> secure/medusa/PDF/Howard/HO-1109.pdf
>>>
>>> For some physical context, two adjacent stones (1906 and 1917) are
>>> professionally carved marble markers without any "incorrect"
>>> writing. The remainder of the graveyard consists of partial lines of
>>> unmodified, vertical slabs of fieldstones located west of the carved
>>> stones, presumably as markers for the graves of servants, the
>>> enslaved, or the poor.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
>>>
>>>
--
Dr. Linda France Stine, RPA
336-334-5132
436 Graham Building
Department of Anthropology
Archaeology Program, ARC Laboratory Director University of North Carolina Greensboro
27412-5001
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