On the wings of a skull.

Today I was down in Kirkcaldy giving a talk at the Fife Gravestones Conference. The conference was held in the ancient Old Kirk a most suitable setting for my offering on how people used to protect their dead from the grave robbers, commonly known as the resurrection men.

I found this grim little carving of a winged skull carved into an ancient mural gravestone on the kirkyard wall. Many Scottish gravestones of that period are richly and skilfully carved with symbols reminding the living of their own certain mortality and possible immortality. 

Skulls and other bones are symbols of our certain death. However a winged skull is a happier symbol, representing not only death, but also the soul of the deceased rising to heaven on the day of judgement.