DETERMINING THE PROVENANCE OF A STONE PAVER FROM A MARYLAND COLONIAL PLANTATION

The goal of this study is to help historical archeologists constrain the provenance of a stone paver excavated from the colonial (late 1600s-early 1700s) English Jesuit plantation of St. Inigoes Manor in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The paver was excavated in 2000 from what is interpreted as a paved stone cellar floor of an agricultural outbuilding, probably a dairy, associated with the manor. Paleontological, lithological, chemical, and mineralogical analysis was conducted on samples from the paver to determine its provenance. Stone fragments excavated from the dismantled St. Mary’s Brick Chapel in St. Mary’s City (~3 km north) were also analyzed for a comparative study to determine if the samples shared the same provenance as the paver. Nine thin sections were made from the paver and chapel fragments. These were sent to micropaleontologists in Florida, New Jersey, France, and Belgium for analysis. We measured the quartz grain and dolomite rhomb diameters. We analyzed the diagenetic alteration using cathodoluminescence and quantified the bulk chemistry using X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry.

The paver and chapel fragments were all classified as dolomitized unsorted biosparites. Given the lithology of the paver, it is unlikely that the stone was locally sourced from the Maryland Coastal Plain Physiographic Province. Due to diagenetic alteration, the microfossils were too poorly preserved to determine the exact species and thus the exact age and source location. The microfossils did suggest an Eocene age and the lithology allowed us to rule out the Florida Platform, the Hampshire Basin in England, the Belgium Basin, and the Paris Basin in France as sources. To date we have not been able to rule out the Aquitaine Basin in France. In regards to the Munsell color, fossils, quartz grain and dolomite crystal diameters, and Ca/Mg ratios, the paver samples were essentially identical to the fragments from the brick chapel. This suggests the pavers were reused from or had the same source as the stone in the chapel. The chapel was closed in 1704 and torn down in 1705, so the timing is right for reuse in St. Inigoes Manor.