Studying Archaeology at the Cemetery

Diana Pedersen

A woman wearing a sun hat and glasses stands next to a gravestone, holding a clipboard and gesturing. She is in a cemetery surrounded by gravestones and greenery.

On Friday, February 28—the first warm and sunny day so far this year!—Professor Erin McGuire and eleven of her students from the University of Victoria gathered at Ross Bay Cemetery. This two-hour visit was part of the course work for Anthropology 397: The Archaeology of Death. To understand what the treatment of the dead can tell us about the living, the students study the funerary practices of different cultures and learn some of the techniques of mortuary archaeology. A heritage cemetery is an excellent place to start.

The visit began with an hour-long tour of the cemetery led by OCS President Yvonne Van Ruskenveld. This tour included the history, design, and layout of the cemetery and emphasized the graves and monuments rather than the stories of individuals. Some familiar highlights included the Mackenzie Mausoleum; the graves of Mary Laetitia Pearce, Sir James Douglas, and Emily Carr; the Bossi Angel; and the Billy Barker monument. Yvonne explained many of the symbols on the monuments, pointed out some OCS restoration projects, and demonstrated the use of the flat location markers. Professor McGuire revealed how to find the name of the monument maker and discussed at length the various materials used for monument construction, as well as interesting features such as tiling and lead lettering.

After the tour, the students were given a form, adapted from the one used by the OCS to describe and document individual graves and monuments. Pairs of students were assigned a name and grave coordinates—their first task was to find that grave! Then they were to complete the form as well as they could by determining the size of the plot, estimating the number of burials, describing the grave and marker, transcribing any inscriptions, and identifying the types of materials used and their condition. The assignment also included mapping, at a later date, a small section of the cemetery in the immediate vicinity. No grave cleaning was to be undertaken—attending an OCS cleaning bee was recommended for learning proper techniques!