A type of decorative motif used on Boston's seventeenth-century gravemarkers was the "death's head." A death's head, often with wings or crossed bones, or both, was a stylized skull. Historians have speculated that winged skulls were intended to symbolize a combination of physical death and spiritual regeneration. Boston-based Puritans did not advocate using religious iconography such as cherubs, Christ figures or crosses in their meetinghouses, on church silver or on their gravestones. Puritans were adamantly against attributing human form to spiritual beings such as God, angels or spirits. The death's head, a non-religious symbol, was the first imagery employed in gravestone carving. You can see the death's head on gravemarkers at Copp's Hill Burying Ground, just up the road from Old North Church on Hull Street.