Many types of work are restricted on holiday weekdays, but those needed by the public are permitted. For example, one can repair the roads and mark the graves.
It was customary to mark graves with lime so that those eating the priestly portion (terumah) would stay away and not become ritually impure. One of the hints for this custom is in the words of Ezekiel, “When one sees a human bone, he will make a marker near it.” (Ezekiel was talking about the soldiers of the army of Gog). The Talmud quotes many other allusions to this custom.
The markers were made at some distance from the grave. It helped the passers-by not step on the place of ritual impurity. However, the grave markers were not placed too far to not take away from the land where one can travel safely. Cemeteries need not be marked because their boundaries were obvious. Alleys leading to them might be labeled since occasionally people could be on the way to bury their dead, run out of time, due either to nightfall or to the approach of Shabbat, and bury the dead in such an alley.
Art: The Jewish Cemetery At Oudekerk On The Amstel by Jacob Van Ruisdael
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