In restoring an 18th and 19th-C cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island, we have
found numerous square pieces of sheet lead in the ground adjacent to
monuments. They were placed at the corners and other load-bearing points
of markers with multiple pieces (slab tombs, for example, and obelisks of
all sizes). Presumably they served to stabilize the marker, with the lead
absorbing the weight at these critical points. That's the theory, at
least.
Jim Garman
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc.
210 Lonsdale Avenue
Pawtucket, RI 02860
401 728-8780