The historical-period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington contains individuals from diverse social backgrounds and exhibits considerable variation in mortuary expression. As such, the Old City Cemetery offers a unique opportunity to explore potential differences in social group mortuary practices spatially and statistically. Using burials in Roslyn’s Old City Cemetery, this project developed a methods framework to assess mortuary practice through demographics, burial location, and monument/plot attributes. I tested correlations between demographics and mortuary expression using spatial-statistical cluster analysis (Ripley’s K-Function), spatial density analysis (Kernel Density Estimation), and non-spatial statistical significance assessments (Factor analysis and Pearson’s R), and identified several demographic-based mortuary trends. Similarities in some ages and nationalities were significantly associated with choice in burial location and monument/plot attributes in the Old City Cemetery, suggesting social dynamics in historical-period Roslyn valued these demographic designations. I did not identify any significant trends in choice between similar occupations or causes of death. Cemetery chronology and known decade-based norms appeared partially responsible for burial location siting and choice in monument or plot attributes.
This project serves to recommend the viability and importance of incorporating both spatial and statistical dimensions into mortuary analysis of historical-period cemeteries, and I offer that this framework can be applied in such contexts to investigate mortuary expression and social dynamics.
","abstract_html":"<p>The historical-period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington contains individuals from diverse social backgrounds and exhibits considerable variation in mortuary expression. As such, the Old City Cemetery offers a unique opportunity to explore potential differences in social group mortuary practices spatially and statistically. Using burials in Roslyn’s Old City Cemetery, this project developed a methods framework to assess mortuary practice through demographics, burial location, and monument/plot attributes. I tested correlations between demographics and mortuary expression using spatial-statistical cluster analysis (Ripley’s <em>K</em>-Function), spatial density analysis (Kernel Density Estimation), and non-spatial statistical significance assessments (Factor analysis and Pearson’s R), and identified several demographic-based mortuary trends. Similarities in some ages and nationalities were significantly associated with choice in burial location and monument/plot attributes in the Old City Cemetery, suggesting social dynamics in historical-period Roslyn valued these demographic designations. I did not identify any significant trends in choice between similar occupations or causes of death. Cemetery chronology and known decade-based norms appeared partially responsible for burial location siting and choice in monument or plot attributes.</p> <p>This project serves to recommend the viability and importance of incorporating both spatial and statistical dimensions into mortuary analysis of historical-period cemeteries, and I offer that this framework can be applied in such contexts to investigate mortuary expression and social dynamics.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hibdon, Sarah Rain"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Cultural and Environmental Resource Management","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Sterling Quinn","Robert Hickey","Nicole Jastremski"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:37:48Z","subjects":["Cemetery","Roslyn","GIS","Spatial Analysis","Mortuary Analysis","Archaeological Anthropology","Genealogy","Geographic Information Sciences","Social and Cultural Anthropology","Spatial Science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1355","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Sterling Quinn","Robert Hickey","Nicole Jastremski"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hibdon, Sarah Rain"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-06-10T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Cultural and Environmental Resource Management"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Cemetery","Roslyn","GIS","Spatial Analysis","Mortuary Analysis","Archaeological Anthropology","Genealogy","Geographic Information Sciences","Social and Cultural Anthropology","Spatial Science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1355"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The historical-period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington contains individuals from diverse social backgrounds and exhibits considerable variation in mortuary expression. As such, the Old City Cemetery offers a unique opportunity to explore potential differences in social group mortuary practices spatially and statistically. Using burials in Roslyn’s Old City Cemetery, this project developed a methods framework to assess mortuary practice through demographics, burial location, and monument/plot attributes. I tested correlations between demographics and mortuary expression using spatial-statistical cluster analysis (Ripley’s K-Function), spatial density analysis (Kernel Density Estimation), and non-spatial statistical significance assessments (Factor analysis and Pearson’s R), and identified several demographic-based mortuary trends. Similarities in some ages and nationalities were significantly associated with choice in burial location and monument/plot attributes in the Old City Cemetery, suggesting social dynamics in historical-period Roslyn valued these demographic designations. I did not identify any significant trends in choice between similar occupations or causes of death. Cemetery chronology and known decade-based norms appeared partially responsible for burial location siting and choice in monument or plot attributes.
This project serves to recommend the viability and importance of incorporating both spatial and statistical dimensions into mortuary analysis of historical-period cemeteries, and I offer that this framework can be applied in such contexts to investigate mortuary expression and social dynamics.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Investigating the Spatial and Statistical Dimensions of Mortuary Choice in the Historical-Period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Sterling Quinn","Robert Hickey","Nicole Jastremski"],"dc:creator":["Hibdon, Sarah Rain"],"dc:date.available":["2020-06-10T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The historical-period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington contains individuals from diverse social backgrounds and exhibits considerable variation in mortuary expression. As such, the Old City Cemetery offers a unique opportunity to explore potential differences in social group mortuary practices spatially and statistically. Using burials in Roslyn’s Old City Cemetery, this project developed a methods framework to assess mortuary practice through demographics, burial location, and monument/plot attributes. I tested correlations between demographics and mortuary expression using spatial-statistical cluster analysis (Ripley’s K-Function), spatial density analysis (Kernel Density Estimation), and non-spatial statistical significance assessments (Factor analysis and Pearson’s R), and identified several demographic-based mortuary trends. Similarities in some ages and nationalities were significantly associated with choice in burial location and monument/plot attributes in the Old City Cemetery, suggesting social dynamics in historical-period Roslyn valued these demographic designations. I did not identify any significant trends in choice between similar occupations or causes of death. Cemetery chronology and known decade-based norms appeared partially responsible for burial location siting and choice in monument or plot attributes.
This project serves to recommend the viability and importance of incorporating both spatial and statistical dimensions into mortuary analysis of historical-period cemeteries, and I offer that this framework can be applied in such contexts to investigate mortuary expression and social dynamics.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1355"],"dc:subject":["Cemetery","Roslyn","GIS","Spatial Analysis","Mortuary Analysis","Archaeological Anthropology","Genealogy","Geographic Information Sciences","Social and Cultural Anthropology","Spatial Science"],"dc:title":["Investigating the Spatial and Statistical Dimensions of Mortuary Choice in the Historical-Period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington"],"dc:type":["Text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Cultural and Environmental Resource Management"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:37:48Z"}