Skull and crossbones on a grave stone?

[cameronke]

Greatings all!

I have noticed on several old gravestones the skull and crossbones. I have had it suggested that there is some naughtical connection. Doubt it was a pirate. Does anyone know the significance? or the correct spelling of naughtical ;-)?

Regards
Cameron

<hr width=100% size=1>Work to live, live to sail

 

[Bejasus]

Masonic.

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[cliff]

or Knights Templar

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[cliff]

nautical

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[ruthhobson]

Masonic gravestones are not unusual but usually feature tools or other Masonic symbols. Skull and Cross bones on grave are quite common although started to go out of fashion by the eighteenth century. Remember this was a society where death was common and an accepted part of everyday.

Some say it represents the acceptance of death possibly refering to Genesis in the Bible. Or that these were the bones that were considered necessary for bodily resurrection! So symbolising the hope of life after death.

Won't waffle on any more - there are links here if you are interested.

http://www.lineages.co.uk/2003/12/20/gravestones/

http://www.kipar.org/society/author/pirates-history/pirate-flags.html

http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/showcasegraves.html

HTH

Ruth


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[Bejasus]

Ruth, the skull & crossbones is actually a strong masonic symbol and frequently appears on gravestones belonging to members who passed away. This also a very old tradition in it's use.

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[jimi]

And Captain Morgan tells all the cabin boys that the Jolly Roger is in fact a quaint initiation rite ..

<hr width=100% size=1>I've got a wonderful profile.

 

[ruthhobson]

Yes, sorry, not disputing that, just adding to it really! That this was a symbol used widely for over 600 years.

Ruth

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by ruthhobson on 03/06/2004 13:44 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[cameronke]

Thank you every body and Thankyou especially Ruth for some fascinating sites. I will spend hours on them!

Have you found a trailer sailer yet? I for one would highly recommend an E-Boat. You get a lot of boat (and fun) for your money

Regards
Cameron

<hr width=100% size=1>Work to live, live to sail

 

[cliff]

"Masonic aprons are frequently decorated with curious and impressive figures. The apron shown above contains a wealth of symbolism: the beehive, emblematic of the **********; the trowel, the mallet, and the trestleboard; the rough and trued ashlars; the pyramids and hills of **********; the pillars, the Temple, and checkerboard floor; and the blazing star and tools of the **********. The center of the apron is occupied by the compass and square, representative of the ********** and the **********, and the alternately black and white serpent of **********. Below is an ********** with seven sprigs, signifying the ********** of the ********** and the **********. The skull and crossbones are a continual reminder that the spiritual nature attains liberation only after the philosophical death of man’s sensuous personality"

And one can fill in the ***s for one's self if one knows how.

And there endeth the lesson for today (maybe)

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[StugeronSteve]

I am sure I was once told that it was used as a mark on plague graves.

<hr width=100% size=1>Semper Bufo

 

[Sunnyseeker]

Its actually christian, here's ther full answer....
I should have gone on who wants to be a millionaire!

John Lord, Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of Lincoln, explained the origins of the symbol. This follows an item in an earlier programme in which it was mentioned that there is a skull and crossbones image on the tomb of Anne of Cleves in Westminster Abbey.

Funerary images and tomb icons are very common in Christianity – early effigies of the dead on tombs go back to catacombs in the fourth and fifth centuries. Later, as we can see in our churches, the well-to-do had, on their tombs, sculptured effigies or outline effigies carved in brass or stone.

From the Middle Ages there were also a number of ‘memento mori’. Such images – the skull and crossed bones, the hourglass, and even the scythe – are reminders of the end to which we all come. They also warn sinners of the brevity of earthly life. And there was also early thinking that evidence of the body was necessary before entry into heaven – the skull and crossbones was a reminder of where the body was.

The skull as an emblem occurs frequently in Christianity, perhaps inspired by Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, where Christ was crucified. The Christian concept of Christ there dying on the cross on behalf of his believers so they might enter heaven is the message of hope in death. This would explain the crossed bones.

Skulls are associated with such penitent saints as St Francis of Assisi, St Jerome and St Mary Magdalene. When included in depictions of them the skull may have a cross placed nearby to warn sinners of the brevity of life.

The next connection to be made is with the pirate flag, the Jolly Roger. This name may be from the joli rouge, which was the red flag which pirates flew to warn ships they must surrender and that refusal would mean no mercy shown. The origin of the red flag may lie with the Knights Templars, the supreme Christian fighting force from the Crusades who did have fighting ships. Outlaw ships which did not have the spiritual motivation of the Templars – just their ferocity – kept the images. Later on, black was also used as the background colour.

Interestingly, groups of the Knights Templars were offered asylum in parts of medieval Scotland. The Templars were ruthlessly suppressed in 1307 by King Phillip IV of France and Pope Clement V with false accusations, arrests, torture and executions. On the eve of the suppression the entire Templar fleet vanished from the port of La Rochelle, together with a vast fortune which was never found. The Templars and their missing fleet came to be viewed as pirates. The Templars looked for refuge in various places, including Scotland, where Robert the Bruce offered them asylum in return for their help against the English King Edward II. They may have helped him at Bannockburn. There are Templar graves in Scotland dating back to the 14th century. Templars’ bodies had the legs removed and the bones lie crossed.

A third associated strand comes with freemasonry which uses the skull and crossbones as a symbol of mortality. In one layer of initiation the candidate is lowered into a representation of a grave, which has within it a skull and crossbones. The Stuarts in Scotland were very strong on freemasonry.

By the 18th century, the skull and crossbones was a symbol with a feared reputation. The flag changed and the symbols too, the crossbones sometimes being replaced by swords and sometimes with added symbols such as hourglasses.



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