It seems like a particularly toughJeopardy!answer: Where did the oldest tombstone in America come from?
Early settlers had no experience in carving tombstones.
The stone was originally laid in the floor of Jamestowns church, built in 1617.
This black limestone tombstone may be the oldest in America, but it likely originated in Belgium.© Jamestown Rediscovery (Preservation Virginia)/International Journal of Historical Archaeology
Some time in the 1640s, it was moved as the church was expanded.
In 1906, it was moved to the historical colonys then-new Memorial Church.
The identity of said knight remains somewhat in dispute.
Whether its West or Yeardley, whats clear is that the stone was meant for someone of means.
Engraved tombstones in seventeenth century Virginia were a status symbol for affluent colonists.
But there are no rocks like this near Jamestown, meaning they must have been imported from somewhere.
He looked at microfossils embedded in the limestone.
Limestone is also a great medium for preserving fossils, as it is resistant to heat and pressure.
Key cut thin slivers off preserved fragments of the tombstone and found several microfossils of single-celled organisms called foraminiferans.
These species did not co-occur anywhere in North America, Key wrote in the study.
The knights tombstone had to be imported from Europe.
Historical evidence of similar colonial tombstones around the Chesapeake Bay suggests the source was Belgium.
Then, it was loaded onto a ship and sent to the New World.
That must have cost a pretty penny, despite conditions in Jamestown that could be brutal.
Theres some evidence that things could get so bad, thecolonists had to resort to cannibalism.
Even so, some right knight decided to shell out some big bucks to import a memorial to himself.
Rich people problems, am I right?
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