A potter's field or common grave is an American term for a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. The expression derives from the Bible, referring to a field used for the extraction of potter's clay, which was useless for agriculture but could be used as a burial site.
Famous quotes containing the words potter and/or field:
“Even more important than the discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is the fact that the general government has just discovered women.”
—Bertha Honore Potter Palmer (1849–1918)
“The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)