Linda,
The use of ditches as a cemetery boundary is an extremely venerable
tradition in western culture, dating back to at least Roman times in
Britain and western Europe ... a few examples follow ...
Oxoniensia 52, Oxford Architectural and Historical Society, in the Roman
Cemetery excavated at Dorchester, in reference to cemetery boundary
ditches around features:
p. 45 The junction between this enclosure and the /cemetery boundary
ditch/ was sectioned. Both ditch fillings were identical, but where F15
cut F25 the edge was sharply defined and not eroded by weathering. This
appeared to confirm that this small burial enclosure was created after
the main cemetery ditch had filled with silt …
~~~
“…the Queenford cemetery was largely destroyed by modern activity before
archaeologists could examine it. Despite such losses, as many as 164
burials were excavated and analyzed…The dead were interred at a shallow
depth of only two to three feet. Originally all the Queenford graves
were enclosed by a /cemetery boundary ditch/, but later, graves were
placed outside /the boundary/as well.”
[Daily life in Authurian Britain by Deborah J. Shepherd, Greenwood
Press, 2013:95]
~~~
“This is once again the truth, I went through it myself. I was coming
home here in the ditch which surrounds the cemetery, and it was dark.
There was a path in the cemetery – across it – which is where I used to
go. I heard that in /the cemetery ditch/there was some child weeping. I
go over there. I take a look ... as I go to the ditch ... I pay
attention . . . well, someone is crying here! One can hear that
underneath the ground someone is crying! I look around ...”
[Studies on Mythology and Uralic Shamanism, Mihaly Hoppal, 2000
<https://books.google.com/books?id=Fb0oAAAAYAAJ&q=%22cemetery+ditch%22&dq=%22cemetery+ditch%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UbiNVZGQDYO1-QGjjZKYBQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwADgU>:47]
On 6/26/2015 1:35 PM, Linda Derry wrote:
> Histarchers,
>
> I need your help. There is a cemetery in our archaeological park that was
> established by the Alabama legislature in 1851 but we can't find any legal
> records that describe the boundaries. However there are historical records
> (newspaper reports mostly) that say that the cemetery was "surrounded by a
> ditch" and a few years after it was created, an osage orange hedge was
> planted just inside the ditch.
>
> Today, the ditch is still very apparent, and there are a few aged osage
> orange trees too.
>
> Our attorney has told us he does't think that he can use the ditch as
> evidence of the boundary, because of the word "surrounds" since, as he
> says, "its like saying that the Indians surrounded the fort and that
> doesn't imply they were establishing a boundary." A fence he would
> accept, and he may consider the osage orange, but he doesn't seem to think
> we can protect the ditch from our neighbor's bulldozers.
>
> So, I am turning to you for help. Are there other examples of graveyards
> that were enclosed by ditches, or documented evidence that ditches were
> used as boundary markers. I'm trying to argue that historically ditches
> were just as real as fences in establishing boundaries.
>
> Linda Derry
> Site Director, Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
> Alabama Historical Commission
> 719 Tremont Street, Selma, AL 36701
> office: 334/875-2529
> park: 334/ 872-8058
> [log in to unmask]
>
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