Archaeologists in the US have long used colonial cemeteries in studies of how artifact styles change, counting on the fact that gravestones offer linked data on style (in the decoration), text (the inscriptions) and form (the shape of the stones themselves). These variables combine to demonstrate the nature of material change over time. The historic transition in 17th to 19th century colonial American gravestones from decorations featuring death's heads to cherubs to neo-classical urn and willow patterns, and inscriptions that evolved from "Here lies…" to "Sacred to the memory of…" was studied initially back in the 1960s focusing on the stones in New England cemeteries. An update looking at the early cemeteries in New York City was published in the 1980s here, and an update to that was done in the 1990s.