One of Jamestown’s Greatest Mysteries – Who Lies Beneath the Knight’s Tombstone?

Ancient Origins

A team of archaeologists at Historic Jamestown is attempting to solve one of the biggest mysteries of the first English settlements in America: a knight’s gravestone that has been embedded into the floor of a church for almost four hundred years. According to the researchers, the two most likely owners of the grave are colonial Governors Sir George Yeardley and Thomas West.

The tombstone, which is carved with an image of a knight and was once adorned with monumental brasses, is located in an old church in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

A reconstruction of what Jamestown may have originally looked like (public domain)

Preservation Virginia Team Has Hard Time to Conduct Proper Research Preservation
Virginia Senior Staff Archaeologist Michael Lavin was very honest about the difficulties of this research and all the mysteries the tombstone posed for his team. “This is kind of out of the realm of what we in the conservation department are doing,” he told WY Daily. And went on to explain how his team lacked the required prowess to conduct a proper scientific research in this case, “It is an artifact, but it is more of a monument. One of the most important things for us is knowing our limitations. We’re archaeological conservators. It’s a completely different field than monuments conservation. The things we hold are never this heavy.”

Who’s the Owner of the Body Beneath?
So, the main question and undoubtedly the greatest mystery in this research revolves around the identity of the body beneath the tombstone. Hayden Bassett, Assistant Curator with Preservation Virginia, claims that by the process of elimination, the two most possible candidates are colonial Governors Sir George Yeardley and Thomas West, The Lord de la Warre. The team focused on the study of the family records of the two men in order to solve the mystery, “When you’re studying mortuary practices, when you’re studying monuments, you never want to go to the records of the person who died, you want to go to the records of their offspring, of their family members who are still living. They’re the people who are largely going to be dealing with the logistics of getting a massive stone over here,” Basset told WY Daily.

 After Preservation Virginia conducted detailed research and went through the journals of both men’s extended families, Basset speculates that they may have found mentions of the stone by Yeardley’s step-grandson Adam Thorowgood II. “What they mention is that they would like to have a black marble tomb with the crest of Sir George Yeardley and the same inscription as upon the broken tomb. We believe that might reference this stone,” Basset tells WY Daily and suggests that if a crest were preserved on the tombstone then archaeologists wouldn’t have any difficulties identifying the grave’s owner.

Mary Anna Hartley, Preservation Virginia Field Supervisor, appears to share the same views with Basset, “Not having the monumental brasses is a real issue,” she told WY Daily, but she believes that the owner is no other than Yeardley and soon they will have more evidence in their hands to prove it, “I’m very optimistic one way or the other who it belonged to, because of how well intact the church has been. We have a real chance here to solve one of our Jamestown mysteries.”

Sir George Yeardley
Sir George Yeardley was knighted by King James I for his role as Governor of the British Colony of Virginia and Jamestown. He was a survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for 10 months in 1609-10. He arrived in Jamestown in May, 1610, and in 1616 came to an agreement with the Chickahominy Indians that secured food and peace for two years.

Far from a knight in shining armor, Yeardley was one of the first Virginians to own African slaves, and was also involved in the exploitation of gold and silver mines. His preoccupation with tobacco interests, to the detriment of the colony’s defences, contributed to the decision for Native Americans to attack in 1622. Yeardley responded by demanding the seizure of their corn, then sold it to starving colonists, pocketing the money for himself.

Is George Yeardley the owner of the mysterious knight’s tomb?
Currently and as conservation of the tombstone continues, Preservation Virginia is determining how to display the tombstone and interpret Yeardley’s legacy to the public.

Top image: The Knight’s Tombstone in Jamestown. (Andrew Harris/WYDaily)

By Theodoros Karasavvas

Mystery Deepens Over Rare Roman Tombstone

 

Detail of the mysterious Roman inscription.

Cotswold Archaeology

Discovery News


Mystery has deepened over a Roman tombstone unearthed earlier this year in western England, as new research revealed it had no link with the skeleton laying beneath it.
The inscribed stone was discovered during the construction work of a parking lot in Cirencester.
Made from Cotswold limestone, it was found laying on its front in a grave — directly above an adult skeleton.

Pompeii Couple Reunited in Marble Inscription

 

When it was turned over, the honey colored stone revealed fine decorations and five lines of Latin inscription which read: “D.M. BODICACIA CONIUNX VIXIT ANNO S XXVII,” possibly meaning: “To the shades of the underworld, Bodicacia, spouse, lived 27 years.”
The discovery was hailed as unique since the stone was believed to be the only tombstone from Roman Britain to record the person found beneath.
In fact, while the dedication on the tombstone is to a woman, the skeleton beneath it was that of a male.
Ancient Greek Tombstones Served as Therapy
It turns out the gravestone and skeleton were also laid at different times — the inscribed stone was early Roman, dating to the 2nd century A.D., while the burial was most certainly late Roman, from the 4th century A.D..
“We believe the tombstone to have been re-used as a grave cover perhaps as long as two centuries after it was first erected,” Ed McSloy, Cotswold Archaeology’s finds expert, told Discovery News.
Martin Henig and Roger Tomlin, leading experts in Roman sculpture and inscriptions at the University of Oxford, noted that the back of the stone is very roughly worked, almost unfinished, in strong contrast to the finely sculpted front.

Unlikely to have been a free-standing tombstone, the five-foot-long inscribed stone may have rather been set into walls, possibly those of a mausoleum.

Who the grave belonged to remains a mystery.
“Reading the letters, the most plausible interpretation of the name is Bodicacia, a previously unknown Celtic name,” McSloy said.
Gladiator Chews Out Ref From Grave
Indeed the name appears to be a variant of a Celtic name with same root as Boudicca. This was the rebel queen of the Iceni, a British tribe, who unsuccessfully attempted to defeat the Romans.
Bodicacia’s tombstone was also unique. The pediment, which is the decorated, triangular portion at top of the stone, shows the Roman god Oceanus.
A divine personification of the sea in the classical world, the god was portrayed with a long mustache, stylized long hair, and crab-like pincers above the head.
‘For Allah’ Inscription Found on Viking Era Ring
The image, according to McSloy “is also hitherto unknown in funerary sculpture.”
Most likely, Bodicacia was deprived of her unique tombstone sometime in the fourth century, when her funerary stone was buried in a grave. At the same time or before this date, Oceanus was deliberately defaced.

“The most likely context for this would be early Christian iconoclasm,” McSloy said.

The tombstone will be soon put on permanent display at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum.

'Unique' Roman tombstone found in Cirencester

BBC News

 

 

 

Archaeologists say the quality of the sculpture is very good

A "unique" Roman headstone is the first of its kind unearthed in the UK, experts believe.

The tombstone was found near skeletal remains thought to belong to the person named on its inscription, making the discovery unique.
Archaeologists behind the dig in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said they believed it marked the grave of a 27-year-old woman called Bodica.
The bodies of three children were also found in the "family burial plot".
Neil Holbrook, of Cotswold Archaeology, translated the Roman inscription on the tombstone, which reads: "To the spirit of the departed Bodica [or Bodicaca], wife, lived for 27 years."
Mr Holbrook said: "The unique aspect is that you can put a name to the person who lies beneath the tombstone."

 

A rare Roman tombstone marking the grave of a 27-year-old woman has been unearthed in Cirencester

"What's weird is that the inscription only fills half of the panel, so there's a space left below it.
"You can see horizontal marking-out lines, so I guess what they were going to do was come back later when her husband died and add his name to the inscription," Mr Holbrook added.
He added that the skeletal remains, including the skull, were being excavated from beneath the headstone.
'Decorative swirls' Mr Holbrook has suggested the name Bodica was of Celtic origin.

Watch the moment archaeologists lifted a Roman tombstone in Cirencester

"Perhaps Bodica is a local Gloucestershire girl who's married an incoming Roman or Gaul from France and has adopted this very Roman way of death," he said.
He said making the "good quality" headstone must have cost "quite a lot of money" at the time.
The headstone's detailed carved pediment - or triangular top section - was particularly interesting, he said.
"Looking at the pediment, those little 'teeth' which we could see from the back are decorative swirls.
"It looks like a draping of a cloth or sheet, so in many ways the decoration is really fine."

A skull was found near the Roman tombstone which is believed to belong to the 27-year-old woman

About 300 to 400 Roman tombstones have been discovered in the UK, with the tombstone being the tenth found in Cirencester.
The stone, which is made of Cotswold limestone, was partially cleaned up on-site by the team, but will be taken away for further inspection.
Mr Holbrook said it was "amazing" the tombstone had survived.
"When they built the garage in the 1960s they scraped across the top of the stone to put a beam in.

The tombstone was discovered during a dig at a Roman cemetery in Cirencester

The tombstone was lifted up by archaeologists revealing details of the Roman who was buried there

"If they'd gone a couple of inches lower they'd have smashed it to smithereens."
Roman tombstones were often taken away and smashed up to be re-used in buildings in Cirencester in the Medieval period.
"This stone might have fallen over quite quickly, and was covered over, and that's why it escaped the stone robbers," Mr Holbrook said.
A total of 55 Roman graves have been found during the dig at St James Place.
A further 70 graves were discovered on the same site of the former Bridges Garage on Tetbury Road and a bronze cockerel figurine was found in 2011.
Cirencester, or Corinium as it was known, was the largest town in Roman Britain after London.