Eroding Heritage: An Island Context

An interest in, and fascination with bones has a very long history, perhaps because in them resides the last tangible evidence of individual existence. During the medieval period, a rather more macabre interest in the skeleton was displayed by artists depicting memento mori such as the 'Three Quick and the Three Dead', the dance macabre, and skeletons with a caption taking a form such as: "As you were, so was I, and as I am, so shall you be." At present, the search for other examples of bones on stones is continuing, as is the hunt for pattern books that masons might have produced, and from which the mourning families could choose the memorial for their deceased relatives. It is hoped that more can be learned of the means by which the masons obtained their rudimentary anatomical knowledge.