Archaeologists have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the oldest known tombstone in the United States carrying an English knight, illuminating in the process the complexities of ancient trade routes.
According to a new study, the tombstone likely came from Belgium and was erected in 1627 in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what became the United States. The authors of the study, published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, analyzed the carvings and inlays of the structure to determine its country of origin. Some mystery persists; they have yet to determine where exactly in Europe the black limestone slab of the tombstone originated.
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Fragments of the tombstone contained fossil microbes, many of where not native to North America. These microbe fossils, however, were found in present-day Belgium and Ireland.
“Therefore, the knight’s tombstone had to be imported from Europe. Historical evidence suggests Belgium, from where it was transshipped in London and on to Jamestown,” the scientists stated, as first quoted in the Independent.
They continued: “We hypothesize it was quarried and cut to size in Belgium, shipped down the Meuse River, across the English Channel to London where it was carved and the brass inlays installed, and finally shipped on to Jamestown.”
A carved depression in the container suggests the presence of brass inlays of a shield, an open scroll, and the likeness of an armored man. According to surviving historical records, two knights died in the colony in the 17th century: Sir Thomas West (died 1618) and Sir George Yeardley, the latter of whom is a promising candidate for the anonymous knight. Sir Yeardley’s step-grandson purchased a tombstone for himself in the 1680s bearing an identical inscription as the 1627 black limestone one.
The senior Yeardley was born in Southwark, England, in 1588 and landed in Jamestown in 1610 following a shipwreck near Bermuda. He was knighted by King James I after returning to England in 1617. But the sea beckoned and he returned to Jamestown in 1621, where he died in 1627.
“Successful Virginia colonists who had lived in London would have been familiar with the latest English fashions and tried to replicate these in the colonies,” the study concluded.
