Sourcing the Early Colonial Knight’s Black “Marble” Tombstone at Jamestown, Virginia, USA

Abstract

The goal of this project was to determine the source of Jamestown’s black “marble” knight’s tombstone. From 1627, it is the oldest such tombstone in the Chesapeake Bay region. We used the fossils contained in archived fragments from the stone to identify its microfossils which included six species of foraminiferans. These co-occurred in what is now Belgium and Ireland during the Viséan Age, Middle Mississippian Epoch, Carboniferous Period. They did not co-occur in North America. 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.