A gravestone carving from 1862

What is the word across the top.

looks like it starts with an A and ends in U.??
Can you look many of these plaques and pick out the readable letters on each one?

Local government search?

It's the Star of David, and Jewish persons very often have it on their headstones.

I could imagine that the name of those persons was unknown, so they just got their religious symbol and a number.

Seems to be a Jewish cemetery.

(And the two letters could be Alpha and Omega (A and O) as symbols for the beginning and the end.)

I must disagree Walter. The Star of David has six points whereas this one clearly has only five. However, the Satanic symbol has five points. But I'm sure this is not that.

You're correct - I didn't notice it was only a five point star.

Witchcraft! I wouldn't go there at night. Too spooky. That appears to be the Pentacle symbol of the Wiccan faith. Rough translation; witchcraft. There's been some debate recently about whether or not the V.A. is justified in denying the Wiccan Soldiers the right to have it etched on their gravestones. Bizarre find... did you say there's a lot of them?

They have a website Here

Wouldnt have thought Wicca (as a formal religion with symbols and plaques)
was around in 1800s

shewolf would know more about this than most here I suspect.

That has been certainly one of the points, I didn't consider it - as far as I know, pentagrams on headstones were common with Freemasons as well. (At least in Europe.)

The Pentagram, by The Grand Lodge of Columbia and Yukon.

bill..

darling, you better stay outta my house at night then..

HA


It isn't a wiccan symbol. I forgot who said it in this thread, but they are correct. What we associate with witchcraft/wiccan today, was only re-created around 1950-1960? It is an old religion that was given new symbols essentially. Though, the 5 pointed star has always been a part of nature religions.. it wasn't until then 50's or so, that it was given so much attention and importance.
(shrug) no matter..


Freemason..
That is what I was thinking it could be.
But, according to wiki- a freemason symbol was not used until later 1800's, close to the turn of the century.

Unfortunately.. out of all of the headstones, this one is the only one that is as clear as it is.

Each one is just about worn off, and on some, there are places that are clear where others are not.
But it is a typical weather pattern.
The tops being worn the smoothest due to rain and wind.
The bottom being chipped away due to modern lawnmowers, weed eaters , and other things banging them .

The star appears to have something directly in the middle.. like a bar of some kind.
And not ONE, has a clear enough etching across the top to even be able to make out the word across the top of the star.
I truly would not be surprised if they were older then the cemetery keeper thinks they are. Mostly because I have seen alot of other headstones from the same time that did not have that much weather damage on them.
This is indicative of a headstone from the late 1700's, not 1800's.
At least from the ones I see here in Austin.

The way they weather here...... Austin is huge on the rain / humidity factor. Not wind, and no snow..
So that wears stones smooth across the top to about mid way down. The bottoms usually are covered with moss, and the humidity/rain causes it to get rougher across the bottom then across the top.

great link.. !

Why do you think it's from 1862? Could provide more clues. (I couldn't see any evidence of that on this one, maybe I missed it or maybe it was another one?)

The bottom seems to say "No. 188" to me (number 88), which would seem to fit with some kind of potter's field.

I looked up "pentagram headstone" and have been getting a lot of stuff about masons. One led me to this site, looks interesting:

http://cemeteries.wordpress.com/?s=star

Eastern stars seem to be inverted, though.

Potter's field:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter's_field

Those are covers for the sprinkler heads.

There ya go.

(Number 188 actually.)

Oh interesting, "Islamic 5-pointed star" is one of the approved insignas on military graves.

Also seems to be the Union Army insigna.

And it's in Texas, of course.



(The lone star state.)

Maybe Texas indigents?

oh!

hmmmmmmm 88 would have worked better for the 88th Masonic Lodge in Texas

the star inside the circle is pretty traditional for Freemasons

Became independent in 1836

Yeah, here's a masonic one I found -- seems to have a lot of other info too:



Masonic seems like the best guess so far though. Need more info about why it's been dated as 1862.