Unveiling Virginia's Sacred Ground: A Photographic Journey Through 17,000 Years of Burial Heritage

 

Unveiling Virginia's Sacred Ground: A Photographic Journey Through 17,000 Years of Burial Heritage

In the quiet corners of Virginia's landscape, beneath highway overpasses and within manicured cemetery grounds, behind historic church walls and atop windswept mounds, lies a largely untold story of the Commonwealth's past. Photojournalist Caine Rose's forthcoming book, Buried Virginia: Oldest Graves, Graveyards and Burial Grounds in the Old Dominion State, offers an unprecedented visual exploration of this hidden heritage, documenting over 50 historically significant burial sites that span an astonishing 17,000 years of human history.

Part of Fonthill Media's Buried America series, this 96-page photographic volume represents more than just a catalog of cemeteries and gravestones. It is a meditation on memory itself, a visual archive of how Virginians—from the earliest Native Americans to 19th-century reformers—have commemorated their dead and, in doing so, revealed the social, cultural, and political structures of their times.

From Prehistoric Mounds to Rural Cemeteries

Rose's ambitious scope begins with Virginia's prehistoric burial traditions, including Native American burial mounds dating from 900 CE to 1700 CE. Among these ancient sites is the Rapidan Mound in Orange County, the largest Native American burial site in Virginia, where an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 individuals were laid to rest over centuries. Though severely damaged—reduced from its original 15-foot height to just six feet—the mound underwent scientific excavation in the late 1980s, with remains respectfully reburied by the Monacan tribe in 1998.

Perhaps most poignant is Chief Powhatan's burial mound on the Pamunkey Reservation in King William County. According to Pamunkey oral tradition, this sacred site contains the remains of Wahunsenacawh—the paramount chief known to history as Chief Powhatan—who died in 1618 and was relocated here by his brother Opechancanough in 1621. The site sits on the oldest Native American reservation in the United States, established by treaty in 1646, making it a living connection to Virginia's earliest documented history.

The narrative then shifts to 1607 Jamestown, where America's earliest English colonial burials tell a stark tale of survival. Rose documents the 36 confirmed grave shafts within James Fort walls, where colonists buried their dead behind the fort wall to conceal the mortality rate from the Powhatan confederacy. Here also stands the Knights Tombstone, believed to mark the burial of Sir George Yeardley, who died in 1627—the oldest surviving marked tombstone in North America, carved from black limestone and rediscovered in 1907.

The Weight of Forgotten Ground

What distinguishes Rose's project is its unflinching attention to burial grounds that have been marginalized, destroyed, or simply forgotten. Chief among these is Richmond's Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, likely the largest African American burial ground in the United States. Established in 1816 to replace the flood-prone Shockoe Bottom site, Shockoe Hill expanded to 31 acres by 1850 and holds over 22,000 burials. Today, the site has been "severely desecrated by highways, buildings, and development," as Rose's documentation notes, with a historic marker unveiled only in June 2022.

The book also captures Hickory Hill Slave and African American Cemetery in Hanover County, where detailed plantation records kept by William Fanning Wickham documented 268 enslaved individuals. Added to the National Register of Historic Places only in 2020, the site represents one of the rare instances where meticulous records allow descendants to trace their ancestry to specific individuals. Similarly, Rose documents the University of Virginia Slave Cemetery, established in 1828 for the enslaved workers who built and maintained Thomas Jefferson's "academical village"—their graves unmarked and rediscovered only during modern expansion plans.

These sites force viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about Virginia's past while honoring the lives of those who have too often been erased from historical memory.

The Rural Cemetery Movement

The book's final chapters explore the Rural Cemetery Movement of the 1840s-1890s, which transformed American attitudes toward death and commemoration. Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, established in 1847, serves as the flagship example. Designed by Philadelphia architect John Notman and inspired by Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery, Hollywood's 135 acres along the James River represent a dramatic shift from utilitarian burial grounds to designed landscapes meant for contemplation and public enjoyment.

Hollywood's grounds contain two U.S. presidents (James Monroe and John Tyler), Confederate President Jefferson Davis, 25 Confederate generals, and over 18,000 Confederate soldiers. The 90-foot Confederate pyramid monument, erected in 1869, stands as a controversial landmark in ongoing conversations about Civil War memory and commemoration.

Rose also documents Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia's second-largest cemetery at 189 acres, where the oldest marked grave dates to 1702. The site contains over 30,000 Confederate graves from the Siege of Petersburg, an African American section established in 1851, and what historians call "the finest collection of cast and wrought iron fences in the United States."

The Photographer Behind the Lens

Rose brings unusual credentials to this project. Mentored by his father, a professional artist and photographer, Rose spent nearly a decade as a photojournalist traveling to over 50 countries documenting war zones, natural disasters, and human rights abuses. He is one of the few Western journalists to interview the Taliban during the Global War on Terror in 2003. His work has been published worldwide and exhibited across the United States.

Now living on a small farm in southern Virginia, Rose has turned his documentary eye toward a subject closer to home. His approach combines the photojournalist's commitment to bearing witness with a deep respect for the cultural and spiritual significance of burial sites. This is particularly evident in his handling of Native American burial mounds, which require special permissions and cultural sensitivity, and African American burial grounds, where he emphasizes preservation and recognition rather than mere documentation.

A Guidebook for the Living

Beyond its historical and photographic value, Buried Virginia serves a practical purpose. Each site entry includes detailed location information, GPS coordinates, access considerations, and visiting hours. The book distinguishes between public access sites like Historic Jamestowne and Hollywood Cemetery, private land requiring permission, and restricted sites like Native American burial mounds that demand particular cultural protocols.

Rose organizes sites into priority tiers, helping readers plan their own explorations. He notes seasonal considerations—winter offers the best visibility for photographing mound sites through bare trees, while spring and fall provide dramatic lighting and moderate weather for extended visits. These practical details transform the book from coffee table volume to field guide, inviting readers to engage directly with Virginia's burial heritage.

Sacred Spaces, Living History

At its core, Buried Virginia argues that burial grounds are not simply repositories for the dead but active sites where communities continue to negotiate questions of memory, justice, and belonging. The 2020 renaming of Lexington's Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery to Oak Grove Cemetery reflects ongoing debates about Confederate commemoration. The 2022 historic marker at Shockoe Hill represents belated recognition of African American history. The 2016 federal recognition of the Pamunkey Tribe affirms Native American sovereignty and cultural continuity.

These are not merely historical sites but contested grounds where past and present collide. Rose's photographs preserve these spaces at a particular moment while inviting viewers to consider their own relationship to this heritage.

For historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in Virginia's complex past, Buried Virginia offers an essential visual record. For those who have never considered cemeteries as sites of historical significance, Rose's lens reveals the profound stories etched in stone and earth across the Old Dominion—stories that demand to be remembered, honored, and preserved for future generations.