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An anchor carved on a monument.
Also known as: Anchor on a grave, Anchor of hope
An anchor on a grave has three quite different possible readings — hope, seafaring, and early Christian concealment — and which applies depends on evidence outside the carving. It is the clearest case in this vocabulary of a motif that cannot be read from the stone alone.
Used in early Christian catacomb art as a covert cross during periods of persecution, an association documented in the archaeology rather than inferred from the shape.
Early Christian
On a maritime community's graves it is usually occupational, and reading it as hope in that setting is a straightforward error. The surrounding inscriptions and the burial ground's character are what distinguish the cases.
This motif genuinely cannot be read from the carving alone. Any source that gives it one meaning is oversimplifying.
An anchor with a ring at the top, a horizontal crossbar below it, a straight shank and two curved arms ending in pointed flukes.
Both depict an anchor; the memorial motif carries readings the general symbol does not.