practitioners, who did have access to more experienced stonemasons. This explains in part why it remained in some areas later than others; with craftsmen in some areas developing their skills quicker than in others. A further reason may be that the early puritans, due to their feelings on humility and lack of regard for adornments, deliberately kept their headstones simple and minimalist. Hijiya goes on to say that the lack of decoration may have reflected that they viewed death as simply as an "ordinary, unremarkable aspect of the human condition", absent from any notion of either oblivion or passing on to ethereal life. Death's head The death's head is the earliest and most frequently occurring motif in colonial era American headstones. The head usually is winged, and accompanied by imagery such as hourglasses, bones and coffins. Though seemingly frightening to modern viewers, the image of a skull was then less about inspiring dread in the viewer, and more about acknowledging a normal, everyday fact of human life. In their belief system, death was when the flesh passed away to make way for renewal in the afterlife. The skulls reflect puritan funeral rituals in total, including their approach to elegies, funerals rites and sermons. Commonly, the horses carrying the remains of the deceased to the graveyard were draped with robes containing painted coffins and death's heads. Burial usually took place three to eight days after death, with the headstone erected up to eight months later. Before the English colonies were fully established and had fully functioning ecomomies, burial rituals were expensive; a relatively elaborate funeral in Boston in the 1720s would have cost around £100. The headstones were a relatively small part of the overall expense, in the 1720s they ranged from £2 to over £40. By the mid-18th century, the death's head image sometimes became less stern and menacing. The figure was often crowned, the lower jaw eliminated, and serrations of teeth appeared on the upper row. Particularly, the eyes become more animated, sometimes almond shaped and with pupils, gibing it a more soul than deathlike appearance. Death's head designs started becoming less common by the 1780s and died out around 1805. Extra imagery such as foliage, grapes and vines, and hearts suggest new life through sacraments and resurrection. This transition cannot be clearly, or easily, seen through the gravestones. The changes are very minute and gradual leaving some stones