Gravestone

In East Asia, the tomb's spirit tablet is the focus for ancestral veneration and may be removable for greater protection between rituals.

Footstones were rarely annotated with more than the deceased's initials and year of death, and sometimes a memorial mason and plot reference number.

Owing to soil movement and downhill creep on gentle slopes, older headstones and footstones can often be found tilted at an angle.

The names of relatives are often added to a gravestone over the years, so that one marker may chronicle the passing of an entire family spread over decades.

Crematoria frequently offer similar alternatives to families who do not have a grave to mark, but who want a focus for their mourning and for remembrance.

Cemeteries require regular inspection and maintenance, as stones may settle, topple and, on rare occasions, fall and injure people;[1] or graves may simply become overgrown and their markers lost or vandalised.

Some headstones use lettering made of white metal fixed into the stone, which is easy to read but can be damaged by ivy or frost.

This contrasts sharply with lettering cut into granite, which is illegible after about a hundred years... For those of you who seek a degree of immortality, a slate headstone, or as a second choice, one carved from an Irish limestone, should ensure that your name will remain on view for several centuries to come!

Gravestones may be simple upright slabs with semi-circular, rounded, gabled, pointed-arched, pedimental, square or other shaped tops.

Somewhat unusual were more elaborate allegorical figures, such as Old Father Time, or emblems of trade or status, or even some event from the life of the deceased (particularly how they died).

In the 19th century, headstone styles became very diverse, ranging from plain to highly decorated, and often using crosses on a base or other shapes differing from the traditional slab.

By this time popular designs were shifting from symbols of death like Winged heads and Skulls to Urns and Willow trees.

Islamic headstones are traditionally more a rectangular upright shaft, often topped with a carved topknot symbolic of a turban; but in Western countries more local styles are often used.

After several instances where unstable stones have fallen in dangerous circumstances, some burial authorities "topple test" headstones by firm pressure to check for stability.

This procedure has proved controversial in the UK, where an authority's duty of care to protect visitors is complicated because it often does not have any ownership rights over the dangerous marker.

"[17] A gravestone can be cleaned to remove human vandalism and graffiti, biological growth such as algae or lichen, and other minerals, soiling, or staining.

In the United States, the National Park Service has published a list of guidelines that outline the best practices of gravestone cleaning: Do Don't