Search

Using the example of Roman inscriptions found at sites in Wales, this paper identifies two kinds of chronology. One commemorated relations between people of different social status and was concerned with acts of patronage or supplication. The other recalled a more generalized ideal and involved a chronology of renewal, tracing that ideal back to a distant but fixed origin in the past. These narratives were largely independent of one another and were related to the exercise of quite different forms of social memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graveyard memorials combine form, decoration and inscription to communicate the social persona of the deceased to those visiting the burial ground. In Pembrokeshire, south-east Wales, a linguistic divide known as the Landsker is expressed through graveyard memorials by the language chosen for the inscription. Variability in language choice is demonstrated not only through time and space, but also by status and religious affiliation (Anglican or nonconformist). Language differences reflect wider cultural ties and these are also expressed through memorials, with the pedimented headstone popular in north Pembrokeshire being used as an example here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]