Betty (GEN MASS list) was discussing the existence of cemeteries in Mass in the 1600s. On Cape Cod, Robert Carlson has documented 11 gravestones from before 1700: http://www.capecodgravestones.com/styles.html The oldest (1683) are in Barnstable's Lothrop Hill cemetery off Rte 6A in the old village of Barnstable (also the County seat) and in Sandwich's Old Burial Ground http://www.capecodgravestones.com/blothpixweb/chipman83blo.html There were probably some kind of markers before that which have not survived? There are some curious boulders, right in line with newer markers, in the Ancient Sears Cemetery in West Brewster. I believe these boulders are markers for the earliest progenitors of my family dating from about 1639. Many of my family are buried in this now formal cemetery which was once the "backyard" of Richard Sears (1590-1676). The oldest dated marker is 1721. http://www.searsr.com/searscem/searscemetery.htm Regards, Ray Sears