Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️
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graveyardarch.bsky.social
Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️
@graveyardarch.bsky.social
3.6K followers 800 following 2.3K 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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graveyardarch.bsky.social
Here is the title page in my draft! I've got to go through now and find any notes I left to myself to fill in later...later is now! Deadline is Feb! #amwriting
A photo of a computer screen, showing a word document with the title page of a book. It reads: 'A Graveyard Guide to Eastern Newfoundland. Robyn Lacy, 2026. Boulder Book, Newfoundland and Labrador'
January 27, 2026 at 7:22 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
My editor copy is finally here from @berghahnbooks.bsky.social ! I'm so happy to see it irl, & I'm so proud of everyone's hard work! 🎉
www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Spinel...
My hand on the corner of a hard cover book. The cover has several rows of jars on it, with a teal bar in the middle reading 'Death, Commemoration, and Cultural Meaning: Past and Present' edited by Robert Spinelli & Robyn S. Lacy.
January 23, 2026 at 7:44 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
I also was super into Jane Tocque's grave, which has a skeleton & various #mementomori symbols! She died at age 71 in 1788, the same year the first Methodist church was built on this site! She was buried by her husband who died in 1768, & his stone has no cool skeletons. #archaeology #nfld
The gravestone of Jane Tocque, died June 1788, aged 71. Go Jane! Her stone is limestone with a skeleton above the inscription, with various arrows ,bones, trumpets, and a scythe behind it. There is also an open book and hourglass, with a ribbon or curtain above. It is very metal. There is snow on the ground and a blue sky. You can just see the side of her husband's grave to the right.
January 21, 2026 at 2:59 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Guys I got sucked into book writing this evening & what was meant to be a short blurb on a site in Carbonear became a whole thing about a Rev's wife because she was cool & has a sick gravestone 💁‍♀️ She filled in for her husband when he was away on his preaching circuit! 🏺
The gravestone of Mrs. Jane Hickson, who died at age 22 in 1823. Her gravestone is made of limestone and has the inscription in a large central circle. Above it is a winged cherub, with 2 trumps, and torches on either side. I'm leaning into the left side of the photo wearing a green toque, orange glasses, a purple raincoat, and a red plaid scarf.
January 21, 2026 at 2:54 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
So excited to receive my contributor copy of @drmaryclary.bsky.social & @carolyndillian.bsky.social 's new edited volume! My first PhD work to see publication is inside! 😍🏺 #Pubarch #archaeology #publication
My hand holding out a blue hardback book with two men making a round wood object on the cover. It is titled 'Collaborative and Community-Engaged Archaeology', edited by Carolyn D. Dillian, Katie Stringer Clary, amd Charles A. Bello. My black cat Giles is sitting on the floor below the book with one yellow eye showing. It's me! I have strawberry blonde hair with cropped blunt bangs, and a grown out french bob with loose curles. I'm grinning at the camera, wearing orange rimmed glasses. My book is open and close to the screen, showing off the title of my chapter. "Chapter 12: Community Archaeology and Burial Landscapes in New Perlican, Newfoundland and Labrador".
January 8, 2026 at 11:21 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
In the vein of using fancy things while you have them & not saving them for a mystery occasion, today I'm wearing a lucite bracelet my husband bought me a few years ago, but Ontario artist Corey Moranis. I never wear it because it's 'fancy' but fancy can be for now!
My hand held out over the top of my desk, showing off my light blue, transparent lucite bracelet. It is tied in a knot around my wrist. To its left on my arm is my fitbit, with a pink strap. I'm wearing a simple gold wedding band and have dark green fingernails.
December 30, 2025 at 4:22 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Mark Critch, Nfld comedian & author, is at The Rooms launching his new book! It does feel like the Who's Who of St. John's in here tonight! #yyt
A crowd of people facing away from the camera, looking towards a wall of windows with blue metal beams behind them. It's dark out. On the stage are Mark Critch and former MP Seamus O'Regan.
December 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Friends, the book is out!! If you are interesed in #deathstudies from an interdisciplinary perspective, please consider checking it out:
www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Spinel...

ALSO we have a 50% off discount code! Use SPIN2909 for 50% off the print version of the book, til Jan 31st! Yay! 🏺
An image with a book cover on the left, showing rows of jars of dirt. The book title is in yellow, and reads 'Death, Commemoration, and Cultural Meaning: Past and Present' Edited by Robert Spinelli and Robyn S. Lacy.
December 1, 2025 at 2:49 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
At the book launch event for @storiedselves.bsky.social & Vicki Hallett's new book, 'Dear Mr. Smallwood'! The letter readings is amazing so far! 👏👏
A room filled with people facing towards the back of the room. Sonja is standing at a stand woth a microphone at the front, with short hair and a blue green scarf.
November 26, 2025 at 10:59 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Postdated for those burials, that's pretty normal. BUT! As I was writing this info into our report, I went hunting & actually found Moses Power's digitized will from 1845! He wrote that he wanted to be buried "beside [his) loving wife in the grave yard of Torbay". 3/
A section of text from Moses Power's Will, 1845. The important line is "In the first place I desire that my body may be decently buried beside my loving wife in the grave yard of Torbay"
November 18, 2025 at 1:14 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Writing a conservation & care recommendations report for a cemetery & I think we just pushed the known age of burials at the site back 2 decades?? Let me weave you a tale! 1/
A close up photo of a limestone gravestone. The text reads: "IHS. Here lieth the body of Moses Power who Dept this life Sept 3rd (?), 1844, Agd 84 yrs. Also his wife Margaret Power, dept 5th Nov 1815, agd 40 yrs. Also their child Anastatia Power, who dept 1st Just, 1814, agd 3 months"
November 18, 2025 at 12:33 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Hello yes, coming to the end of Remembrance Day & we have immediately put up our tree 💁‍♀️
The lights combat the fact that its dark at like 4:30pm now!
A living room with light blue walls, with white fairy lights running around the top of the walls. We are looking at a christmas tree in the front left of the frame, covered in rainbow lights and numerous handmade clay ornaments. In the centre is a wooden ikea tv stand with 3 drawers, and a large black flatscreen tv. Above it on the walk is a gallery of paintings and prints in black frames. In the far right corner is a grey cat tree.
November 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
I assisted my colleague with a Remembrance Day embroidery workshop yesterday, & made this!! I learned most of the stitches during the workshop so I could assist participants, & made this in between actually helping :) #embroidery
A small wooden embroidery hoop holding white fabric, with a forget-me-not flower embroidered on it. I'm holding the hoop over a grey table scattered in sewing needle packs and bits of thread.
November 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Please admire my Pierrot costume, based on Derain's painting! ✨️ #halloween #halloween2025 #costume
It's me, dressed all in white with a large white neck ruffle and right black hat. There are black pompoms on my sleeves, and two on each pant leg, and I'm holding a black mandolin.
November 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 31, Memento Mori: the last day of #31DaysofGraves, we have this ledger in the floor of the Domkerk, Utrecht! Note the reclining skeleton with Memento Mori below it, the cherubs with their hourglasses, & another cherub on a smaller plinth reading 'Pavi Atim', or 'I was so happy'.
A large, black stone ledger set into the floor of the Domkerk. There is a sort of egg and cup design around the border, and a panel of text in Latin at the top. In the centre is a large wreath with a heraldic shield in the middle and a knight's helmet. The memento mori symbols described in the post are all on the bottom half of the stone. The bottom half of the stone in detail, with a pait of feet wearing black and white sneakers and blue jeans on the bottom of the image, standing on the edge of the stone.
October 31, 2025 at 2:21 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 30, Colour: This is the limestone grave marker of the Honourable John Kent, 2nd Premier of Newfoundland, who died suddenly in 1872. He is buried in the Belvedere RC Cemetery in St. John's, NL. Someone keeps repainting John's face on the stone 🫠
#31DaysofGraves
A large limestone crucifix, Jesis is wearing a wrapped fabric around his waist. The cross is on a round pillar with a pointed top, and below the cross is curved scroll work amd a circle framing a carving of the face of John Kent. The stone flairs out below him onto a wide cylindrical base. The face is painted to look more lifelike.
October 30, 2025 at 9:51 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 29, Occupation: The grave of Reverend William Dutton, a Methodist minister in Greenspond, NL, who died in Dec 1870. He had only arrived in July of that year, before dying of typhoid fever. His stone is detailed, with an open book on top, a rose laying on the pages.
#31DaysofGraves
A two piece complex marble monument, rectangular with a carved open book laying on the top with a carved rose on the pages. The inscription is carved on a panel that looks like a scroll. It was carved by MacKim
October 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 27, Tree: The gorgeous forested graveyard in Elliston, NL, featuring me!
Day 28, Column: This gravestone in Trepassey Old RC Cemetery is so ornate! The columns on the side frame a detailed central IHS with vines and blossoms.
#31DaysofGraves
A forested graveyard, with a central pathway of blue and purple slate reaching from the centre towards a small white chapel in the background with a red door. I am standing partway down the path with my legs crossed, wearing a green wide brimmed hat, a grey sweater, and jeans. A very ornate white marble gravestone with an IHS in the centre, surrounded by flowers and ivy. It is dedicated to Johm Hewett, 1871. Another almost identical gravestone is peeking in from the left, and a man in leaning down from the right in a plaid shirt and green baseball hat, putting an irange pinflag into the ground by the grave.
October 29, 2025 at 12:36 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 26, Figure: Here we have the extremely pre-Reformation burial of historian Jean Juvenal des Ursins and Michelle de Vitry, his wife. They are praying, suggesting to the viewer to offer prayer to help their souls from purgatory. They are buried in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
#31DaysofGraves
The photo shows two figures made of wood or stone and painted. They are kneeling and facing left in prayer. The inscription says 'Jean Juvenal des Ursins 1431, Prevot de Marchands de las Ville de Paris. Et Michelle de Vitry sa Femme, 1456'
October 26, 2025 at 10:56 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Tonight was @ohfolkthat.bsky.social 's traditional pumpkin carving night! @stgiles.bsky.social & I went for the dynamic duo 💁‍♀️✨️
Two carved pumpkins, lit up in the dark. On the left is Derpy the tiger from kpop demon hunters, amd on the right is the 3 eyes bird with the hat from the movie too!
October 26, 2025 at 2:02 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 25, graveside ornament: A beautiful family grave with a scotty dog sculpture at Pére Lachaise cemetery, Paris. The front says 'Concession a perpetuite', meaning that they have paid to own that plot in perpetuity!
#31DaysofGraves
A low grave monument covering the entire grave shaft. It has a shallow carved cross across the length of the low gable monument, and there is a bronze fern or palm leaf in the middle. Near the foot of the monument is a statue of a scotty dog, painted white with a red tongue.
October 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 24, Unique Animal: A flatfish on a ledger in the floor of the Domkerk in Utrecht, Netherlands. The stone is too worn for hundreds of years of feet to see the name or date, but the fish on the crest endures!
#31DaysofGraves
A photo looking at the floor at a large, black stone ledger. It is very worn, so there are no letters left on it, but in the centre there is a family crest with a flatfish in the middle.
October 25, 2025 at 12:19 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 23, Cross: Today we have an elegant Celtic Ring Cross with lead lettering, at the General Protestant Cemetery in St. John's, NL. It is the grave of John Anderson, a member of the Legislative Council of Newfoundland. He died in 1930.
#31DaysofGraves #yyt
A sandstone celtic ring cross with celtic knot designs across the face of the cross. It is standing on 2 sandstone blocks, and has lead lettering.
October 24, 2025 at 12:08 AM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 22, Landscape: This is the L'anse Amour burial mound in southern Labrador. It it the oldest known burial monument in North America, at 7700 years old, & was the burial of a young person associated with the Maritime adapted peoples in Labrador. 😍
#31daysofgraves
Reddish brown soil is in the foreground, dotted with rocks and small flowers. In the centre of the image is a grassy pile of rocks and earth, the burial mound. Low trees stretch out into the distance under a blue and cloudy sky, and there is a glimpse of the ocean in the top left.
October 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
graveyardarch.bsky.social
Day 21, Bronze: The beautiful and tragic monument of auronauts Joseph Croce-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel, lying side by side holding hands. They died in their hot air balloon in 1875 at 28,000 feet from lack of oxygen, and are buried together, recognized as 'martyrs to science'.
#31DaysofGraves
A large bronze monument of two men laying under a shroud, their shoulders, heads, and arms exposed. The shroud drapes down over the limestone sides of the monument. Both men look to be sleeping, their hair pushed back and heads turned away from one another.
October 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM