The San Diego Gravestone Project
Established in the early 2000s, the San Diego Gravestone Project explores how cemeteries reflect the social and cultural history of San Diego County through historical research, photography, and preservation efforts.
Featured Publications
"Cemeteries of San Diego"
By Seth Mallios and David M. Caterino
San Diego has a rich and unique cultural history that can be effectively told through the commemoration of its dead. Local cemeteries throughout the city reflect San Diego's multiethnic cultural dynamism and pinpoint marked shifts in power from Native American to Spanish to Mexican to American governance. They also reveal the current struggle for space in a burgeoning metropolis. Graveyards, with their individually detailed and hauntingly beautiful monuments, offer an unrivaled historic yet continuous glimpse at the essence of this diverse community. The story of San Diego's cemeteries is a telling narrative that offers remarkable insight into the evolution of "America's Finest City."
"Cemeteries of San Diego County"
By David M. Caterino and Seth Mallios
From its Native American and mission graveyards to its modern megacemeteries, San Diego County's historical landscape has an incredibly diverse array of final resting places. "Cemeteries of San Diego County" takes the reader in-depth to reveal the region's dynamic cultural history through dramatic modern photographs and never-before-seen vintage images of the county's most sacred spaces--its lost and forgotten historical burial grounds. A number of these graveyards have disappeared entirely, erasing the last vestiges of too many of the region's formative pioneers. This book uncovers the location of dozens of local cemeteries and reestablishes them as consecrated grounds.
Spatial Seriation, Vectors of Change, and Multi-Centered Modeling for Cultural Transformations among San Diego’s Historical Gravestones: 50 Years after Deetz and Dethlefsen’s Archaeological Doppler Effect
By Seth Mallios
Journal of Anthropological Research. Volume 70, Number 1 (Pages 69-106)
Mortality, Money, and Commemoration: Social and Economic Factors in Southern California Grave-Marker Change during the 19th and 20th Centuries
By Seth Mallios and David Caterino
International Journal of Historical Archaeology. Volume 15, Number 3 (Pages 429-460) DOI: 10.1007/s10761-011-0152-z
Transformations in San Diego County Gravestones and Cemeteries
By Seth Mallios and David Caterino
Historical Archaeology. Volume 41, Number 4 (Pages 50-71)
From “Unknown” to the Known: Recovering Identity at the Lost Scripps Cemetery in San Diego
By David Caterino and Seth Mallios
The San Diego State University Occasional Archaeological Papers. Volume 2, Number 1
The Evolution of San Diego Cemeteries and Gravestones
By Seth Mallios and David Caterino
Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology. Volume 19 (Pages 57-59)
Gravestone Studies of Imperial County: Formal-Temporal Trends in Rural Cemetery Markings
Rachel Bilchak
April 11, 2025
Reconstruction of San Diego identities and attitudes through 19th and 20th century gravestone symbols
Keshia Marie Montifolca
December 4, 2013
The cemeteries and gravestones of San Diego County : an archaeological study
David Caterino
April 26, 2005
San Diego Cemeteries and SDSU’s Hidden Murals with Seth Mallios
With Rami Alarian
The Daily Aztec Debrief
Episode 15, March 17, 2026
SDSU Professor Unearths the Buried Tales
By Gina Speciale
SDSU NewsCenter
March 15, 2007
Digging up the dead
By David J. Olender
SDSU Daily Aztec
March 13, 2007 (Page 1)
Ways to Give
Our history is more than the past; it is the living foundation of our communities. Please join us in supporting SDSU’s cultural and historical legacies. Your gift protects our history, funds cultural preservation, and ensures that these stories inspire future generations.
Stay Connected
Email: [email protected]
Top banner image: SDSU students and volunteers collect data from grave markers at the All Saints Epicopal Church and Cemetery in Oceanside. (Photo credit: The South Coastal Information Center)
