taphologist

English

Etymology

From taphology +‎ -ist.

Noun

taphologist (plural taphologists)

1. (rare) One who studies graves and burial.
   • 1902 October 16, “Here in Lincoln”, in The Lincoln Daily Star, number 13, Lincoln, Neb.:

     Walton G. Roberts, Taphologist.

   • 1913–1915, Rupert Brooke, “New York (continued)”, in Letters from America, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, […], published 1916, page 27:

     Every day I pass a wall, some five hundred square feet of which a gentleman has taken to declare that he is ‘out’ to break the Undertakers’ Trust. Half the advertisement is a coloured photograph of himself. The rest is, “See what I give you for 75 dols.!” and a list of what he does give. He gives everything that the most morbid taphologist could suggest, beginning with “splendidly carved full-size oak casket, with black ivory handles. Four draped Flambeaux …” and going on to funereal ingenuities that would have overwhelmed Mausolus, and make death impossible for a refined man.

   • 2006, Ryan M. Seidemann, “Stones and Bones: Can Taphologists and Archaeologists Happily Coexist?”, in AGS Quarterly: Bulletin of the Association for Gravestone Studies, volume 30, number 2, →ISSN, page 8, column 2:

     At the same time, taphologists need the preservation and recovery of their sacred places, something that, often, only archaeologists can properly provide.

See also

• taphonomist

 

Anagrams

• pathologist