Graveyard Guru 5/27/2010

The Obelisk & Its Origins

by Stephanie Lincecum

Most of us that spend any time in a cemetery have happened upon an obelisk at one time or another. They come in varying sizes, from short to tall to massive. It is possible, however, to have never entered a cemetery and still have seen an obelisk. They can be found all over the world. The tallest obelisk, completed in 1884, is 555 feet and 5 ½ inches high. It is the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.

Wikipedia.org defines the obelisk simply as “a tall, narrow, four-sided tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top.”

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

In his book Forever Dixie: A Field Guide to Southern Cemeteries & Their Residents, Douglas Keister describes funerary architecture in the American cemetery: “Up until the Reformation in the sixteenth century, most cemeteries consisted primarily of randomly placed headstones. Wealthy folks purchased their way into being buried within the walls and floors of their church. But a series of edicts and a slowdown of church construction during the Reformation essentially put an end to burial within the church. Moneyed types started looking outside the walls of the church to erect a suitable memorial to themselves and their families. Elaborate statuary, tombs, and monuments slowly began to find their way into formerly stark churchyards and city cemeteries. When garden cemeteries with vast landscaped expanses began to be developed in the early nineteenth century, they became a new architectural frontier for America’s architects, artists, designers, and builders.”

Mr. Keister goes on to describe six broad groups of cemetery architecture. It is in the Egyptian architecture where the obelisk is found. The Egyptian style is considered to be the most funerary of all architecture because almost every work in ancient Egypt had something to do with death and afterlife. The obelisk is no exception. It is representative of a ray of sunlight in honor of the Sun God Ra, the giver of life and the source of all heat and light.

As it pertains to the American cemetery, Douglas Keister writes this: “The obelisk was readily adopted by funerary designers because of its obvious verticality stretching towards the heavens and the ways it could be adapted by adding reverential shrouds [and] flames representing eternal life…It’s also more than a little obvious that the various sizes of obelisks were meant to show one’s status.” The addition of shrouds, flames, and even crosses made the obelisk less of a pagan image and more palatable for the Christian society, allowing it to evolve into what we see today.

  

All other photos by Stephanie