Who started the practice of erecting gravestones?

[Eleatic Guest]

Any evidence for (inscribed) hewn gravestones before the Greeks and Romans?

The Christians adopted the practice from the Romans (or, more precisely, christianized Romans continued their pagan practice).

Much later we also find Ottoman gravestones with turbans.

Nowadays, the practice seems to have spread globally to all cultures, doesn't it?

[Astiryu1]

The Chinese Civilization has used them for quite a long time but I am unsure of the earliest known date. The Persians as well are supposed to have used them but I haven't found any good evidence. Good Luck!

[Epictetus]

I have a feeling that this is old - very old. We know that humanity has marked graves since time immemorial. Some believe that Neanderthals marked graves in some fashion. Of course, these might have been rather simple: an upright stone, pile of rocks or perhaps even just a stick thrust in the ground. Eventually incisions could be the next step as a mnemonic system of sorts – something like “The X is Uncle Thag and the circle is Aunt Thagarella.” When writing developed then good old Thag could have his name written on his tombstone.

Just as an example of a non-Greco-Roman gravestone, here is one from Asia Minor that a researcher at the University of Chicago dates to the eighth century.



As far as I know, the near-contemporary grave site at the Osteria dell’ Osa only had one possible use of a grave stone. A female inhumation grave was covered with a horizontal lava stone slab and had a vertical one next to her head. I’m a bit unclear if the vertical stone was visible above ground level. There were no markings mentioned by Sestieri.

[Astiryu1]

The wealthy would be able to afford Gravestones but they also had grave goods. The conflicting interests make having a conventional Gravestone unlikely due to looters. Up until the Romans of course. Commoners would be buried or cremated less adorned but a few would have Gravestones right? Of course the Egyptians had their own Gravestones but are fairly large, expensive and for the upper class. :wink:

[Eleatic Guest]

I have a feeling that this is old - very old...Just as an example of a non-Greco-Roman gravestone, here is one from Asia Minor that a researcher at the University of Chicago dates to the eighth century.

The text says the body of the dead was probably cremated, so - inferring at least from modern practice - the urn would be kept elsewhere, possibly at the home of the family. In this case, with no grave in immediate vicinity, the stele would not be a gravestone, but rather a memorial stone. These obviously have an old age, but I have yet to see evidence for headstones the way they are today erected today at the grave.

[Epictetus]

I took it to mean that the stone was found in a tomb or mausoleum of sorts? I assumed that was why they think he was cremated - they found ashes. (Or the other option would be that the stone says he was cremated, I suppose.) That Italian Iron Age cemetary I mentioned previously included full-body inhumations as well as cremated remains buried in those urns shaped as huts.

[Sean Manning]

Interesting question! I don't think gravestones are an Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Scythian, Median, or Persian custom.

Epictetus gave one example of a non-Greco-Roman gravestone. I think there were some stellae at the grave circle in Mycenae, and maybe at Troy. One Norse burial custom was to outline a grave with small standing stones in the shape of a boat. And I think they used larger stones as grave markers too ... although late enough that there could be Roman influence.

In our culture, grave markers are sometimes wooden. They wouldn't leave a trace in the archaelogical record, but serve the same function as stone markers.