JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA—The Williamsburg Yorktown Daily reports that Preservation Virginia conservators are working with large-stone specialist Jonathan Appell to preserve the so-called Knight’s Tombstone, which has lain on the floor of the church at Historic Jamestowne for some 400 years. The stone is carved with an image of a knight and was once adorned with monumental brasses. Nearly half of the 1,200 pound stone is in one piece; the lower section has cracked into several large pieces. “Each of the pieces were light enough for one or two people to lift it onto the cart, except that last part took about five,” said field supervisor Mary Anna Hartley. The largest piece was propped against the church wall, and then lowered onto a wooden platform that had been built beneath it. The platform was then moved up a wooden ramp to a work station on a cart. The team is now carefully removing concrete applied to the stone in the early twentieth century. “It’s very hard to reverse,” Appell said. The pieces will eventually be reassembled with a softer, pigmented mortar. Researchers will try to identify the grave’s occupant. For more, go to “Jamestown’s VIPs.”
