HACKER Q&A
📣 amichail

Why do tombstones show the least interesting info about the deceased?


Why not list their major accomplishments?


  👤 beardyw Accepted Answer ✓
"Here is buried Isaac Newton, Knight, who by a strength of mind almost divine, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own, explored the course and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, the tides of the sea, the dissimilarities in rays of light, and, what no other scholar has previously imagined, the properties of the colours thus produced. Diligent, sagacious and faithful, in his expositions of nature, antiquity and the holy Scriptures, he vindicated by his philosophy the majesty of God mighty and good, and expressed the simplicity of the Gospel in his manners. Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race! He was born on 25th December 1642, and died on 20th March 1726."

Translation from the Latin


👤 dave4420
The tombstone is usually chosen by surviving family members, not for the deceased. They care more about what the deceased was _to them_, not about what the deceased did at work.

👤 bell-cot
Walk around an old cemetery for a while. If some tombstone did list major accomplishments (now many years ago, and ignoring stuff like "father" and "soldier") - would you have the context to understand those? And comparing with the normal (succinct) tombstones - might you suspect the guy with the long-winded tombstone of being an obnoxious braggart?

👤 bombcar
Because birth and death dates are known. Arguing about the accomplishments could be difficult, and tombstones were expensive to carve, so you had limited space.

Sometimes you'll see "mother" or "father".



👤 mikewarot
There might be 5 people named John Smith in a family plot... each the father of the next.... Birth/Death dates help tell them apart.

👤 Am4TIfIsER0ppos
They often state their position in a family, which is almost everyone's greatest accomplishment.

👤 superchroma
it's not a blog, it's a personal space, even if in a shared cemetary, for family and friends to remember.