Tombstone Tuesday: Really Old Stones

I sometimes find these really old looking tombstones when I go to cemeteries back in Western Maryland or look at Mom's tombstone photo file. They are a puzzlement to me and while I have no good explanation for them and the way they look, I just noticed another one in Mom's tombstone file and now I have a collection so here they are. If you have any idea about them please let Mom and I know!

As you can see, the dates on them range from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. Now I'm starting to think that this might be a style of home-made country tombstone that was made by an unskilled hand whenever a professional wasn't available. They were all located in the "back woods".

Searching I find this link to Old Gravestone Styles.  It does mention the use of slate in the 1700s and slate was a material readily available locally in the West Virginia and Western Maryland area where these stone were found. I was disappointed in that all of these from Old Gravestone Styles look more professional and artistic to my eye.

On another site, Gravestone Styles, I'm starting to see a rough form of lettering used in the 1600s on slab stones on some of these stones from Cape Cod. The closest match is a slab stone from the 1500s which you can see here.

Is this image backwards and upside down?! Truly, I can't tell.

The Braddock Stone in front of the Frostburg Museum.

Tombstone Tuesday is a weekly blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. You can find the whole week's list of prompts here.

The URL for this post is: http://www.capecodgravestones.com/blothpixweb/rawson83blo.html