Guess what? Jamestown really is a town!
Today we spent our time at two Jamestown sites. The first is the actual site of Jamestown Colony:
England sent 118 men to create the first English permanent settlement in the New World in 1607. At first the site looked like a perfect place. It was situated easily defensible from attack my native Americans with a perfect view of the river. If anyone tried to attack by water, such as the Spanish, the settlement as in a great place as well. If you are traveling on the James River from the Atlantic, you have to navigate a sharp, 90 degree turn before reaching James Island. If the arriving ship was unwanted, settlers had a perfect opportunity to shoot at the approaching ship’s broad side as it came through the curve. The settlers didn’t realize, though, when they situated themselves on James Island, that there were many disadvantages to the site as well. The water was tidal and often brackish, the area was in the worst drought it had seen in 700 years (according to tree ring study done recently!), and the Powhatan natives were not happy to see them.
Jamestown site. The archeologists have excavated the foundations of building built in 1607 and then recreated them according to written descriptions. To the right is a statue and monument to John Smith.
The archaerium at Jamestown site is an archeological museum showcasing what has been found to date. This museum is constantly changing, since the site is active with archeologists in several places. While we were there I watched an intern unearth a metal piece of bridle from the ground next to where there had just in the past week begun unearthing the skeleton of a horse or mule. While this doesn’t sound really exciting, the fact that the animal was buried quite close to the church has baffled the researchers.
This intern was unearthing a bridle as we watched! I think I want to be an archeologist!
The most exciting find lately had been last summer’s discovery of bones belonging to a woman who lived in Jamestown. (Women arrived in 1609 – and quite possibly she is one of the original women at the settlement.) What makes her discovery mind boggling is that the bones has indications that she may have been cannibalized. There are written records during a terrible winter called “The Starving Time” that indicate that the bodies of settlers who had died were eaten by the starving settlers who remained. The bones of this woman and another skeleton are on display at the museum.
Graves of original settlers.
I very much enjoyed walking around the site, knowing that John Smith dug the well that I stood near, and that Pocahontas walked where I was walking. (Beware, if what you know about Pocahontas is from a Disney movie, you have been lied to! Get a book or research her on line for the TRUE story!) The site was beautiful- green and lush. I saw a deer and turtles in the swampy area under the bridge we walked to get to the island. It was quite an experience to tour the site.
Part of the morning included meeting and hearing James Horn speak. Horn is a researcher and author who wrote “A Land as God Made It” about the birth of Jamestown, and also “A Kingdom Strange” about the history of the lost colony of Roanoke. He was very interesting. Mostly he talked about Roanoke and his theory of what happened to the people of that settlement. It was exciting to hear that he has found a map drawn by John White, leader of the Roanoke group, in 1587 that has a part of the map covered by patch with writing under neath it and also has invisible ink on it that may give us an indication of where the settlers actually went. Based on his theory, there is currently an archeological dig is underway looking for any evidence of a settlement. We may figure out what happened to them yet! One last comment about this map: James Horn showed up a picture of the map that White drew in 1587 beside a Google Earth image of the area now. It is nearly identical!
James Horn signed my copy of A Kingdom Strange.
When we left James Island and the actual site of Jamestown, we traveled a short distance to another Jamestown. This site is a recreation of Jamestown as it may have looked in 1610 or so. Included at this Jamestown were reproductions of the three ships that the settlers arrived in: The Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed, as well as the stockade wall and buildings. People walked around in period accurate costumes and the overall feel of the place was that Miss Frizell had taken us in the Magic School Bus back in time. After visiting the actual site, it was fun to enter a place that made the foundations and explanations we had gotten in the morning become real.
Talking with a re-enactor at Jamestown.
I can’t wait to teach Jamestown and Roanoke in the Fall! We are going to have so much fun with my new, deeper understanding of the history and place, and with all my pictures and ideas.
