It is possible when driving by an old cemetery to guess the approximate dates of the burials by the styles of the tombstones. The tombstones reflected the sentiments and religious temperments of the people of the time. There were styles that came in favor and then went out of style to be replaced by others.
Earliest stones might have what seen to modern persons like austere death heads which decades later were depicted in softer imagery more as softened soul effigies or flying souls/angels.
Not usually seen in New Hampshire but seen elsewhere was a style of tombstone with actual photographs of the departed set in glass enclosed cameos.
The Classical Revival movement influenced tombstone styles greatly.
https://www.salisburyhistoricalsociety.org/classical-revival-influence/
Today we might see some examples of beautiful landscapes and more personal motifs etched into stone.
Below is a list of some older style motifs found in our graveyards.
Click the symbol name to go to Images.
Anchor Hope, an anchor of the soul
Angel Effigies—the soul, (flying)—Rebirth or Death Heads Mortality, death or Flying Soul– flight of the soul from the mortal body
Cross Salvation
Draperies Symbol of mourning draperies used in the home during viewings and funerals and the post funeral mourning period.
Garland Victory in death
Grapevine Grapes/wine as symbolic of communion wine, Blood of Christ or Vine with Branch and Fruition
Heavenly Hands Handshake- farewell to earthly existence
Ivy Memory and fidelity
Lily Of The Valley, Wilting Rosebud Purity, Innocence, Death, often of a young child
Six Pointed Star Possible a Christian symbol derived from Judaism. It appears in older graveyards.
Obelisks Classical Revival design element borrowed from ancient Egyptian Obelisks.
Urns Receptacle for the bodily remains/mortality. The urn was an Imperial Roman device used to contain ashes and Greek symbol of mourning, the body as a vessel of the soul, originating as a repository for the ashes of the dead in ancient times. Timing and use is part of the of the Classical Revival in art and architecture.
Sun, Star Renewed life, guiding light
Tree of Life Eternal life
Wheat Sheaves Bakers use wheat flour to make communion wafers, making it a holy plant, of sorts. Bundled sheaves of wheat often connote harvest, end of the “a season” also used to denote old age
Weeping Willow Ancient symbol of grief and sorrow. A predominant image used on late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century gravestones in the Classical Revival.