In Centreville VA we excavated several graves. Two (dating 1910 & 1919) had hardware that might be called thumbscrews. We called them caplifters. One grave had large and small ones, the small one could easily be called a thumbscrew. Photos are in: 

Moore, Larry E., Douglas W. Owsley, and Karin L. Sandness. 
1995  Military and Civilian Burials from Centreville, Virginia. Quarterly Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Virginia 50(4): 27-45. 

Larry
 


> 
> From: Anita Cohen-Williams <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2006/01/18 Wed PM 06:09:23 EST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Grave furniture
> 
> http://zibal.hubris.net/pipermail/acra-l/2000-June/007132.html
> (references to books) Follow the thread forward for more references
> 
> http://www.crai-ky.com/education/reports/bioanthropology.html (A paper
> with full references)
> 
> Hacker-Norton, Debi and Michael Trinkley (1984) Remember Man Thou Art
> Dust: Coffin Hardware of the Early Twentieth Century. Research Series
> No. 2, Chicora Foundation, Inc., Columbia, SC
> 
> Garrow, Patrick H. (1987) A Preliminary Seriation of Coffin Hardware
> Forms in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Georgia. In Early Georgia,
> The Society for Georgia Archaeology 15(1-2):19-45
> 
> Kogon, Stephen L. And Robert G. Mayer (1995) Analyses of Coffin
> Hardware from Unmarked Burials Former Wesleyan Methodist Church
> Cemetery, Weston, Ontario. North American Archaeologist,
> 16(2):133-162.
> 
> And these are from Yahoo, in a search of 10 minutes.
> 
> 
> 
> On 1/18/06, Tim Thompson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Does anyone have any good references on coffin hardware? I'm looking
> > specifically for info on thumbscrews used to secure coffin lids. Thanks for
> > any help.
> >
> > Tim Thompson
> >
> 
> 
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