RAMONA – A group of graduate students is studying hundreds of old gravestones all over the county, discovering what they can reveal about history, changing perceptions of death and the ecological and economic conditions of the past.

The data the students are collecting are the basis of a joint study, called the San Diego County Gravestone Project, being conducted by the anthropology department at San Diego State University and the South Coastal Information Center, a specialized reference library at SDSU.

The two-part study began in August and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The first step was to locate and catalog all the cemeteries in the county. The second phase focuses on headstones installed before 1960.

"We will be doing a statistical analysis of the artwork and size of the stones," said David Caterino, assistant coordinator of the project. "We can compare that to the economic conditions of the times."

Caterino, 43, is working with a crew of six to eight graduate students who are visiting cemeteries. They were at the Nuevo Memory Gardens cemetery in Ramona recently, recording the conditions of its tombstones along with the inscriptions and decorative art on them.

"We've done about 70 (cemeteries) where we've actually gone out and cataloged the stones," Caterino said, adding that there are between 100 and 130 cemeteries that will be included in the research.

The study was developed by Seth Mallios, director of the South Coastal Information Center and a professor of anthropology at the university. He wanted to learn more about the county's past.

"A good way to learn about the history is through the gravestones," Mallios said. "You can see changes in mortuary art, changes about how people felt about death, a lot of neat topics when you look at the designs on the stones and see what's written in the epitaphs."

In addition to large cemeteries in cities and smaller ones such as Nuevo Memory Gardens, the study will include obscure cemeteries, many of which are on private property, such as the Littlepage Cemetery east of Ramona.

"I almost couldn't find that one," Caterino said. "I love going out in the field and hunting the cemeteries down. Very few people even know they exist now. A lot of them, it's just word-of-mouth, talking to the locals, that sort of thing."

Graduate student Nadejda Levine, formerly of St. Petersburg, Russia, accompanied Caterino on the initial search.

"These little hidden cemeteries that nobody knows about, that's the fun of this project," said Levine, 25. "You get to meet a lot of old-timers, and it's always interesting to hear stories about different places. It just makes it more personal.

"Since I come from a different place, it familiarizes me with the history of these places. You get to learn more about each."

Shannon Black, 29, of Chicago, said working on the project has given her a better understanding of the county and its heritage.

"It's really opened my eyes to the whole pioneer culture," said Ruth Anne Schmutz, 30, of Miami.

Maren Castaneda of Chula Vista had another perspective on what she gleaned from studying old graves.

"It feels good when people come up to you in the graveyard and ask you what you're doing," said Castaneda, 24. "You can tell them that you're helping to preserve something that could be lost. I think it gives them a better feeling about their loved ones in the cemetery."

Ruth Lepper is a free-lance writer who lives in Ramona.