Posted by Soillarda The "Irish Lot" is a very small cemetery in Rhode Island with graves dating back to the early 1700s. Some of the headstones have circular holes bored through them and its something of a mystery as to what caused them exactly. The prevailing theory is that they are bullet holes.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4525/38475633152_89820a64cf_z.jpg
|
Interesting. Are they limestone?
I doubt it's a bullet hole; it would have cracked the slab. If it is a bullet hole that didn't spite the slab one side will show missing chips on the exit side.
More likely a vein of softer lime acid rain eroded away over time. Or a damaged spot from quarrying/hammer drilling that wasn't as obvious at the time it was cut but accelerated the erosion of the stone at that spot.
Many of the old limestone and marble headstones have been heavily damaged in the last century or so by acid rain especially in the NE
200 years ago this wasn't an issue... until the industrial age.
Granite fairs much better.