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:
“Steam was till the other day the devil which we dreaded. Every pot made by any human potter or brazier had a hole in its cover, to let off the enemy, lest he should lift pot and roof and carry the house away.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“And through the field the road runs by
To many-towered Camelot;”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)