Archaeologists are well known for digging up pottery and other implements that describe the daily lives of people who lived and died long ago, but sometimes they also dig into what long-ago people did to deal with death.
Thanks to a team of researchers who published their results in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, the oldest known tombstone in America finally has a complete story to tell. The grave marker, known as the “black marble knight’s tombstone,” was first laid in a church in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1617. Long thought to be made of black marble, the team studying the stone says it is actually made out of a very fine grade of black limestone.
The stone was identified in part by examining tiny little fossils embedded in its structure. The researchers found bits of fossils and were able to identify six different types of single-celled life that was native to Belgium and Ireland, but not to America. Combined with data from historical records, the team surmises that some early American colonists were spending a fortune to have grand tombstones made in Europe and shipped by sailing vessel across the Atlantic ocean.
And what of the reference to a knight? It turns out the tombstone does indeed mark the death of an English knight. The surface of the stone is polished and shines, and it has inlays of brass. Though worn with age, many believe the image depicted is one of a knight holding a sword.
Though it is not possible to connect the stone directly to a particular person with certainty, as it has no writing, archaeologists believe it was probably made to commemorate the death of a knight. This type of stone was prized by English aristocrats in the 1600s, and it is the only known example of a stone with English-style brass inlay to be discovered in the New World English colonies.
Some people believe the stone belonged to Sir George Yeardley, one of two English knights who were known to have died at the time the stone was first laid.
That discovery, combined with historical records, led archeologists to conclude the stone was imported from Belgium and evidence of a vast colonial trade network across the Atlantic.
In the journal article, the team wrote that evidence points to the stone originating in Belgium, then being shipped to London, and then finally put on a ship bound for Jamestown.
It was like an early modern version of ordering from Amazon, “but a lot slower,” according to Markus Key.
