I recently blogged about an infant's grave in the veld, which I discovered near Velddrif, about 160km/100mi north of Cape Town. Close to that grave I found another – a larger gravestone, lying flat on the ground. I cleared away a lot of debris, and again cast sunlight on the headstone with a mirror. I'm not sure how much of the inscription can be made out – I have published this photo in fairly high resolution so as to improve anyone's chances of deciphering it. The surname may be “Carosini”, which would again be an Italian surname, and that of a member of one of the leading settler families in the area (the Berg River mouth).
Friday, March 13, 2015
Italian Grave
I recently blogged about an infant's grave in the veld, which I discovered near Velddrif, about 160km/100mi north of Cape Town. Close to that grave I found another – a larger gravestone, lying flat on the ground. I cleared away a lot of debris, and again cast sunlight on the headstone with a mirror. I'm not sure how much of the inscription can be made out – I have published this photo in fairly high resolution so as to improve anyone's chances of deciphering it. The surname may be “Carosini”, which would again be an Italian surname, and that of a member of one of the leading settler families in the area (the Berg River mouth).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
WOW!
Very, very cool.
Grab some paper (preferably an A0 or A1 sheet) next time you're in the area and lay it on top of the grave stone and use a pencil to rub out the impression onto the sheet and then send it up to me :). Just kidding, but that's how I'd lift the text and emblem at the top of the stone.
Interesting how this stone it shaped similarly to the other stone (The seven rounded embellishments at the top of the stone). The original child’s gravestone was broken at the top, were the pieces lying close by? Did they share the emblem I can faintly see on the second photo? How far apart were the gravestones? I can see that they’re made out of different stone, any ideas which? Is that a Greek cross (all arms of equal length)?
Ha, thanks Thomas.
If you can send some people over in a bakkie, I can direct them to where they can load it up. Best in the dark of night, though. Do you collect them?
The gravestones seemed similar in several respects. The larger one was a stone's throw away (a standardised stone's throw, as per the Scarborough measure).
Post a Comment