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Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Tombstone Tuesday ~ A Very Odd Symbol on a Tombstone in Reddenhall, England

This tombstone was photographed at the churchyard of St. Mary's in Reddenhall, Norfolk, England while we were on the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Historic Sites Tour.  The FULLER family from the Mayflower attended church here.


IN LOVING MEMORY OF
ELLEN
THE WIFE OF
JOHN JORDAN
WHO DIED APRIL 4TH 1900
AGED 91 YEARS


This strange symbol puzzled me.
Is it a dollar sign?  With three lines?
A strange secret organization?

Of course, the truth behind this interesting symbol is very ordinary.  It is just the letters I, H and S on top of each other, sometimes called a christogram.  The Greek letters Iota, Eta and Sigma are the three letter of the name of "Jesus".  The Roman version is the letters IHC.   Another christogram is the chi-rho which are the letters x (chi) and p (rho) on top of each other from the Greek for "Christ". 

See the Wikipedia article for Christogram

Have you seen this particular christogram on a tombstone?  The one that looks like a dollar sign with three lines?

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~  A Very Odd Symbol on a Tombstone in Reddenhall, England", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 5, 2017, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/12/tombstone-tuesday-very-odd-symbol-on.html: accessed [access date]).

2 comments:

  1. Since it is England, I would have expected a pound sign not a dollar sign for money. The IHS and XP symbols are interesting. I'll have to keep a lookout for them. I wonder if the custom was carried over to the US.

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    1. Since I saw this in England I have seen it inside churches (embroidered on vestments, and on a flag) here in the US, but not yet on a tombstone.

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