I’ve been plenty of graveyards where the old gravestones are completely unreadable. Did they use different/worse stone in the past or is this the most likely outcome of new gravestones after a couple hundred years? Several people have mentioned engraving into stone in this discussion but in this one example I can think of engraved stone, it doesn’t leave me feeling confident about the medium. What am I missing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Whitby
There are many headstones here that are completely destroyed by salty sea spray. Erosion of rock is something that is often told as a million-year process but it is very visible within your lifetime depending on the conditions