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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️

@graveyardarch.bsky.social

3.4K followers 750 following 2K posts

Adjunct prof, PhD in Historical Archaeology ✨️ Mortuary Archaeologist & Museum Educator. I like graves, the C17th, landscapes, & protective magic. I preserve gravestones, write books, & paint pictures (she/her) https://linktr.ee/RLacy

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · Jul 30

Hello everyone, I thought I'd reintroduce myself! 💁‍♀️
I'm Dr. Robyn Lacy, & I'm a historical + mortuary archaeologist in NL, Canada. I'm an adjunct professor of archaeology, gravestone conservator, & museum educator. I study burials, protective symbols, & colonial spaces! 🏺 #archaeology #heritage

I'm standing in a bush beside a rocky hiking trail, leaning on a small trail sign reading 'Doctor's Cove'. It's sunny in the woods, and I'm wearing a forest green toque, green button up hiking shirt from lululemon, and dark green climbing pants with black knee patches.

I'm standing beside a 10 foot tall tripod made of 2x4s, with a blue chain hoist under it, hauling up a thick limestone gravestone. I'm wearing a khaki hat, blue long-sleeved shirt, and olive green pants. The graveyard is in a lush valley, and the ocean is in the background over the rocks.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2h

Oh amazing! We stumbled between other graves & found it that way 😂

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4h

I saw this one!! It is in the corner of another photo I took!

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4h

Day 8, Glass: I struggled to find an example in my phone for this one! Here we have a family mausoleum in Pére Lachaise, Paris, with light shining through a gorgeous little stained glass window in the back. #31DaysofGraves 🏺

A tall, narrow mausoleum made from sandatone. It is Gothic revival style with the iron doors pushed inwards. There is as a small blue and red stained glass window in the back, with a white cross in the middle, letting sun shine into the structure.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 1d

Day 7, Angel: This is the grave of George Fleet J, who died in Trinity at age 15, 1873. His grave is decorated by a detailed flying angel blowing a trumpet, with a banner behind her reading 'Behold He Cometh'. George is buried at the Methodist graveyard in Trinity, NL.
#31DaysofGraves 🏺

A marble gravestone with an angel flying and playing a trumpet. The description is pretty much in the skeet actually!

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 1d

4 weeks in knee-jail (what I have been calling my splint): Can almost bend it to 90°, cannot fully straighten still, still kinda swollen?? 🫠🫠

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 1d

No problem!!

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

It's me! So a pentangle (5 pointed star drawn from 1 line) is protective & in Christianity represents the 5 wounds of Christ, 5 wits, 5 fingers of the hand. A filled in star like those is more celestial, so it could be for the heavens, the divine, etc. 🫡

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

Woaaah what a cool stone!

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

Day 6, Gender: The classic final farewell motif is often depicted as a hetero couple, with a feminine & masculine shirt sleeve cuffs. On Susannah's stone, we see an elegant, lace cuff on the left & a buttoned up cuff on the right. Battle Harbour, Labrador.
#31DaysofGraves

Gravestone of Susannah Bradley, made of white marble. The centre motif is of a final goodbye handshake, with feminine and masculine shirt sleeves. On either side are little leafy branches, with the inscription below. The stone is broken about halfway up.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

That's so cool! If I had more time there maybe we could have read the stone

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

That's so cool, thank you! I've never heard of one being on a grave!

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

Oh wow! Yeah it might be, the babies are carved very similarily :0

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 3d

Day 5, Bird:
A gorgeous swan or goose with a nest full of babies, on a weathered gravestone at Pére Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. I've never seen so many birds on a grave! #31daysofgraves

A limestone gravestone with a few vines of green ivy reaching up from the base. In the lunette of the stone is a large carving of a goose or swan with its wings outstretched and head bend down, feeding 6 or 7 babies in a nest. The majority of the stone is illegible.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you so much! 🥰

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 3d

Mirror selfie with my crutch after a friend's excellent surprise bday party ✨️

It's me! I'm standing in the my bathroom mirror, holding up my phone. I have a mustard yellow long cardigan, silver necklace, white and black striped shirt, and jeans!

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Reposted by Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️

The Black Country Dying Museum @bcdyingmuseum.bsky.social · 4d

Looke uppon the language of a speakeing stone...

Physician James Vaulx and his two wives Editha Jenner and Filipe Horton at St Mary, Meysey Hampton. 1630.

#31DaysOfGraves

Day 4: Languages

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4d

@annaandthedead.bsky.social here is a pic from the previous year during cleaning, you can see the inscription a bit better with the cleaner on it!

A close up of the bottom of the Day 4 gravestone, pre-cleaning. The last 2 lines are in Scottish Gaelic, and I'm not sure what it says :(

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4d

Haha yup!! But no, this is the only one I've seen in Nfld! I know of another in Nova Scotia, but that's it. And i've never seen Irish on a grave over here, that would be sick!

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4d

Day 4, Languages: I may have posted a photo of this grave last year, but now it's super clean! This grave, to Robert & Leah MacDonald, has an epitaph in Gaelic along the bottom. The stone is at the Old UC Cemetery in Greenspond, NL. 🏺❤️ #31DaysofGraves

A small, ornate marble gravestone to two children, Robert Baxter Macdonald, and Leah Elizabeth Macdonald. They both died in the 1880s. The base of their gravestone has several lines of Gaelic.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4d

It was fantastic! Part memoir part history! It's called the Secret Life of a Cemetery

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 4d

😂😂

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 5d

Mm, I think it needs more skeletons.

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Reposted by Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️

David Connolly BAJR @bajr-badger.bsky.social · 5d

Terrestrial Geophysics Project Officer
Wessex Archaeology Ltd
Salary: £32,570 – £37,783
Closing Date: October 24, 2025
Location: Salisbury or Sheffield
www.bajr.org/job-ad/terre...

Terrestrial Geophysics Project Officer - BAJR - British Archaeology Jobs and Resources

Salary: £32,570 – £37,783Closing Date: 24/10/25Location: Salisbury or Sheffield

www.bajr.org

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 5d

Well this is amazing!!

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 5d

Day 3, Tomb: We saw this amazing example in Pére Lachaise Cemetery, following the Egyptomania trend of the late 18th to early 20th century! Complete with an anhk, the only inscription appears to be 'Sacchet J-L-C'. I'd love to know more about them! 🏺
#31DaysofGraves

A photo in Pete Lachaise Cemetery of a pyramid shaped mausoleum. There is a plinth over the low door, with an ankh made of holes on the door. Behind it are gorgeous tall trees with yellowing leaves and other gravestones.

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