Latest / New Discoveries at Jamestown / 02 - New Discoveries at Jamestown by John L. Cotter, J. Paul Hudson
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- 0:09Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith
- 0:13Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. New Discoveries at Jamestown by John L.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Cotter and J. Paul Hudson. Part one Exploration the Ground
- 0:30Speaker 1: yields many things. Now during the course of this reading,
- 0:34Speaker 1: I will tell you where an illustration has been inserted.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Part one begins with a quotation by Lord Bacon as follows.
- 0:45Speaker 1: As in the arts and sciences, the first invention is
- 0:48Speaker 1: of more consequence than all the improvements afterward. So in kingdoms,
- 0:53Speaker 1: the first foundation or plantation is of more noble, dignity
- 0:57Speaker 1: and merit than all that followeth end. In the summer
- 1:03Speaker 1: of nineteen thirty four, a group of archaeologists set to
- 1:06Speaker 1: work to explore the site of the first permanent English
- 1:08Speaker 1: settlement at Jamestown Island, Virginia. For the next twenty two years,
- 1:13Speaker 1: the National Park Service strove, with time out for wars
- 1:16Speaker 1: and intervals between financial allotments, to wrest from the soil
- 1:20Speaker 1: of Jamestown the physical evidence of seventeenth century life. The
- 1:25Speaker 1: job is not yet complete. Only twenty four out of
- 1:28Speaker 1: sixty acres estimated to comprise James City have been explored.
- 1:33Speaker 1: Yet a significant amount of information has been revealed by
- 1:37Speaker 1: trowel and whisk, broom and careful recording. By nineteen fifty six,
- 1:42Speaker 1: its total of one hundred and forty structures, brick houses,
- 1:46Speaker 1: frame houses with brick footings, out buildings, workshops, wells, kilns,
- 1:51Speaker 1: and even a nice storage pit have been recorded. To
- 1:55Speaker 1: help unravel the mystery of land holdings sometimes marked by distis.
- 2:01Speaker 1: Ninety six ditches of all kinds were located, and hundreds
- 2:04Speaker 1: of miscellaneous features from post tolls to brick walls were uncovered.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Refuse pits were explored meticulously. Since before the dawn of history,
- 2:14Speaker 1: man has left his story and the objects he discarded.
- 2:18Speaker 1: When archaeology at Jamestown is mentioned, the question is often asked,
- 2:23Speaker 1: why was it necessary to treat so famous a historic
- 2:26Speaker 1: site as an archaeological problem at all? Isn't the story
- 2:31Speaker 1: finished with the accounts of John Smith's adventures, The Romance
- 2:34Speaker 1: of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, The Starving Time, the Indian
- 2:39Speaker 1: Massacre of sixteen twenty two, Nathaniel Bacon's rebellion against Governor
- 2:44Speaker 1: Berkeley and the establishment of the first Legislative Assembly. The
- 2:49Speaker 1: archaeologist's answer is that the real drama of daily life
- 2:53Speaker 1: of the settlers, the life they knew twenty four hours
- 2:56Speaker 1: a day, is locked in the unwritten history beneath humous
- 2:59Speaker 1: and tangled vegetation of the island. Here a thimble from
- 3:03Speaker 1: the ruins of a cottage still retains a pellet of
- 3:06Speaker 1: paper to keep it on, a tiny finger that wore
- 3:09Speaker 1: it three hundred years ago, a bet halberd in an
- 3:13Speaker 1: abandoned well, a discarded sword, and a piece of armor
- 3:17Speaker 1: till again the passing of terror of the unknown. After
- 3:20Speaker 1: the Indians retreated forever into the distant hills and forests,
- 3:25Speaker 1: rust eaten axes, wedges, mattocks, and saws recall the struggle
- 3:30Speaker 1: to clear a wilderness. The simple essentials of life in
- 3:34Speaker 1: the first desperate years have largely vanished with traces of
- 3:38Speaker 1: the first fort and its framed buildings, but in later houses,
- 3:42Speaker 1: the evidence of Venetian glass, Dutch and English delftware, pewter
- 3:47Speaker 1: and silver, eating utensils, and other comforts and little luxuries
- 3:52Speaker 1: tell of new found security and the beginning of wealth.
- 3:56Speaker 1: In all, a half million individual artifacts at the Jameson
- 4:00Speaker 1: Town Museum represent the largest collection from any seventeenth century
- 4:05Speaker 1: colonial site in North America. But archaeologists have found more
- 4:10Speaker 1: than objects at Jamestown. They sought to unravel the mystery
- 4:14Speaker 1: of that part of the first settlement, which disappeared beneath
- 4:17Speaker 1: the eroding current of the James River during the past
- 4:20Speaker 1: three hundred years. It has always been known that the
- 4:24Speaker 1: island in the seventeenth century was connected to the mainland
- 4:27Speaker 1: by a narrow isthmus extending to Glasshouse Point, where a
- 4:32Speaker 1: glass making venture took place in sixteen o eight. Over
- 4:36Speaker 1: this isthmus, the Great Road ran, and its traces had
- 4:39Speaker 1: been discovered on the island as far as the brick
- 4:42Speaker 1: church tower. As the isthmus disappeared at the close of
- 4:46Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, the river continued to erode the island
- 4:50Speaker 1: headward and build it up at its downstream end, so
- 4:54Speaker 1: that the western and southern shores where the first settlement
- 4:57Speaker 1: had been built, were partly destroyed. Thus, the first fort
- 5:02Speaker 1: site of sixteen o seven, of which no trace has
- 5:05Speaker 1: been found on land, is thought to have been eaten
- 5:08Speaker 1: away together with the old powder magazine and much early
- 5:12Speaker 1: seventeenth century property fronting on the river. In a series
- 5:16Speaker 1: of extensive tests for any possible trace of the sixteen
- 5:20Speaker 1: o seven fort still remaining on land, several incidental discoveries
- 5:25Speaker 1: of importance were made. One was an Indian occupation site
- 5:29Speaker 1: beneath the layer of early seventeenth century humus, which in
- 5:33Speaker 1: turn was covered by the earthen rampart of a Confederate
- 5:37Speaker 1: fort of eighteen sixty one. This location is marked a
- 5:41Speaker 1: day by a permanent in place exhibit on the shore
- 5:44Speaker 1: near the old church tower. Here, in a cutaway earth
- 5:48Speaker 1: section revealing soil zones from the present to the undisturbed clay,
- 5:53Speaker 1: evidence of three hundred fifty years of history fades away
- 5:57Speaker 1: into prehistory, when then the enclosure of this same Confederate
- 6:03Speaker 1: fort was found, a miraculously preserved pocket of seventeenth century
- 6:07Speaker 1: debris marking the site of the earliest known armorer's forge
- 6:11Speaker 1: in British America. Just beyond upriver lies ruins of the
- 6:17Speaker 1: Ludwell House and the Third and Fourth State Houses. In
- 6:21Speaker 1: nineteen hundred to nineteen o one, Colonel Samuel H. Young,
- 6:26Speaker 1: a U. S. Army engineer and a keen student of
- 6:28Speaker 1: Jamestown history uncovered and capped these foundations after building the
- 6:33Speaker 1: original sea wall. A strange discovery was made here in
- 6:38Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, while the foundations were being examined by
- 6:41Speaker 1: archaeologists for measured drawings. Tests showed that no less than
- 6:47Speaker 1: seventy human burials lay beneath the State House walls, and
- 6:52Speaker 1: an estimated two hundred more remain undisturbed beneath the remaining
- 6:55Speaker 1: structures or have been lost in the James River. Here
- 7:00Speaker 1: it may be the earliest cemetery yet revealed to Jamestown,
- 7:03Speaker 1: one so old that it was forgotten by the sixteen
- 7:07Speaker 1: sixties when the third State House was erected. It is
- 7:11Speaker 1: indeed quite possible that these burials, some hastily interred without coffins,
- 7:17Speaker 1: could date from the starving time of sixteen oh nine
- 7:20Speaker 1: to sixteen ten, when the settlers strove to dispose of
- 7:23Speaker 1: their dead without disclosing their desperate condition to the Indians.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Here is inserted an illustration entitled Jamestown Exploration Trenches of
- 7:34Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five from the air landmarks of the old
- 7:38Speaker 1: Cypress and the river upper left, the Turres Centenary Monument
- 7:42Speaker 1: and the standing ruin of the eighteenth century Ambler House
- 7:47Speaker 1: end of caption. The highlight of archaeological discoveries at Jamestown
- 7:51Speaker 1: is undoubtedly the long forgotten buildings themselves, ranging from mansions
- 7:56Speaker 1: to simple cottages. Since no accurate map of seventeenth century
- 8:01Speaker 1: James City is known to survive, and as only a
- 8:04Speaker 1: few land tracks, often difficult to adjust to the ground,
- 8:08Speaker 1: have come down to us, archaeologists found that the best
- 8:11Speaker 1: way to discover evidence was to cast a network of
- 8:14Speaker 1: exploratory trenches over the area of habitation. During its whole
- 8:20Speaker 1: century of existence, the settlement was never an integrated town.
- 8:25Speaker 1: The first frame houses quickly rotted away or succumbed to
- 8:28Speaker 1: frequent fires. Brick buildings were soon erected, but probably not
- 8:33Speaker 1: two score ever stood at one time during the seventeenth century.
- 8:38Speaker 1: Bearing in mind that the massive church tower is the
- 8:41Speaker 1: only seventeenth century structure remaining above ground today and the
- 8:45Speaker 1: only building whose identity was therefore never lost, you will
- 8:49Speaker 1: find only one other identified with positive assurance, the Ludwell House,
- 8:55Speaker 1: Third and fourth State Houses Row. The remaining one hundred
- 8:59Speaker 1: forty structures so far discovered by excavating have no clear
- 9:03Speaker 1: cut identity with their owners to complicate matters. More bricks
- 9:08Speaker 1: from many burned or dismantled houses were salvaged for reuse,
- 9:12Speaker 1: sometimes leaving only vague soil shadows for the archaeologists to ponder.
- 9:18Speaker 1: From artifacts associated with foundation traces, relative datings, and usually
- 9:24Speaker 1: the use of the structure can be deduced from physical evidence,
- 9:29Speaker 1: unless a contemporaneous map is someday found. We shall know
- 9:33Speaker 1: little more than this about the houses at Jamestown, except
- 9:37Speaker 1: for the testimony of assorted hardware, ceramics, glassware, meddleware, and
- 9:42Speaker 1: other imperishable reminders of seventeenth century arts and crafts churches.
- 9:50Speaker 1: The first church service at Jamestown was held under a
- 9:53Speaker 1: piece of sailcloth in May sixteen o seven. The first
- 9:57Speaker 1: framed church, constructed within the Palace Zaides, burned with the
- 10:01Speaker 1: entire first fort in January sixteen o eight, and was
- 10:05Speaker 1: eventually replaced by another frame structure after the fort was rebuilt.
- 10:11Speaker 1: The exact date of the first church to stand on
- 10:13Speaker 1: a brick foundation is uncertain, possibly sixteen thirty nine. Brick
- 10:19Speaker 1: foundation traces uncovered in nineteen oh one by John Tyler Junior,
- 10:24Speaker 1: a civil engineer who volunteered his services for the Association
- 10:28Speaker 1: for the preservation of Virginia. Antiquities lie behind the free
- 10:32Speaker 1: standing brick church tower, which remains the only standing ruin today.
- 10:38Speaker 1: The modern brick structure and roof enclose and protect the
- 10:41Speaker 1: footing evidence of the walls of two separate churches and
- 10:45Speaker 1: a tiled chancel flooring. Indication of fire among these foundations
- 10:50Speaker 1: was noted by Tyler. Illustration caption A mansion structure of
- 10:55Speaker 1: public building dating from the second quarter of the seventeenth century,
- 10:59Speaker 1: rebuilt once and burned about the time of Bacon's Rebellion
- 11:03Speaker 1: sixteen seventy six. End of caption mansions. Despite official urgings
- 11:11Speaker 1: that they build substantial townhouses on Jamestown Island, the first
- 11:15Speaker 1: successful planters often preferred to build on their own holdings
- 11:19Speaker 1: away from the capitol. Once the Indian menace had passed.
- 11:23Speaker 1: Only two houses at Jamestown designed for single occupancy have
- 11:28Speaker 1: over nine hundred square feet a foundation area. One was
- 11:32Speaker 1: either a stately residence or a public building area thirteen
- 11:36Speaker 1: hundred fifty square feet, located near Pitch and Tar Swamp
- 11:41Speaker 1: just east of the Jamestown Visitors Center. Archaeological evidence indicates
- 11:46Speaker 1: that this structure was first completed before the Middle of
- 11:49Speaker 1: the seventeenth century. It was later reconstructed and enlarged about
- 11:53Speaker 1: the beginning of the last quarter, possibly during Bacon's rebellion
- 11:57Speaker 1: of sixteen seventy six. Staly it burned. The second structure
- 12:04Speaker 1: was a smaller twelve hundred square feet but imposing house,
- 12:08Speaker 1: located near the present shoreline, considerably downriver. One of the
- 12:12Speaker 1: features of this second mansion was a basement, in the
- 12:15Speaker 1: center of which was sunk a square bricklined recess, three
- 12:19Speaker 1: point three feet on a side and two point seven
- 12:22Speaker 1: feet deep. Among the many wine bottle fragments in this
- 12:26Speaker 1: recess were three bottle seals, one with W W and
- 12:30Speaker 1: two with F N stamped on them. Whether or not
- 12:34Speaker 1: this mansion can be associated with Sir Francis Nicholson, the
- 12:39Speaker 1: last governor resident in Jamestown, who moved the capital to Williamsburg,
- 12:44Speaker 1: we do not know. Artifacts found in the refuse indicate
- 12:48Speaker 1: this house was dismantled, not burned, shortly before or after
- 12:53Speaker 1: the turn of the seventeenth century. The mystery of the
- 12:56Speaker 1: little bricklined recess is not entirely solved, but it is
- 13:00Speaker 1: probable that here was a primitive cooler deep below the house,
- 13:04Speaker 1: in which perishable foods or wines were stored. Illustration caption
- 13:10Speaker 1: Jamestown house types simple frame, half timber, brick and row
- 13:16Speaker 1: conjectural sketches by Sydney E. King. End of caption. Another
- 13:22Speaker 1: illustration caption excavated foundation of a late seventeenth century prototype
- 13:27Speaker 1: of the Baltimore and Philadelphia rowhouses. Six families could have
- 13:31Speaker 1: lived here. End of caption row houses. Although row houses
- 13:38Speaker 1: a continuous row of joined family residences on unit foundations,
- 13:42Speaker 1: were a common city feature in seventeenth century England, Apparently
- 13:47Speaker 1: they did not become popular at Jamestown, but the brick
- 13:51Speaker 1: foundation of one true multiple family unit has been uncovered,
- 13:55Speaker 1: and two others approached this category, thus providing the true
- 13:59Speaker 1: precedent for the uses which came to characterize miles of
- 14:03Speaker 1: Baltimore and Philadelphia streets and are a familiar pattern of
- 14:07Speaker 1: some modern duplex apartment units. This Jamestown row house is
- 14:12Speaker 1: probably the most impressive foundation on the island. It is
- 14:16Speaker 1: sixteen feet long and twenty feet wide inside measurement, situated
- 14:21Speaker 1: east of the terre Centenary Monument, facing south, well back
- 14:25Speaker 1: from the river and the back street. A cellar and
- 14:28Speaker 1: a great fireplace terminate the East End, and nine other
- 14:31Speaker 1: fireplaces are evident in four main divisions, which may have
- 14:35Speaker 1: housed one family or more in each division. Since artifact
- 14:39Speaker 1: evidence relates it to the last quarter of the seventeenth
- 14:42Speaker 1: century and possibly the beginning of the eighteenth, there would
- 14:47Speaker 1: seem little possibility of the row house having served as
- 14:50Speaker 1: a public building or a tavern. There is some evidence
- 14:53Speaker 1: that at least part of the structure burned. Two other
- 14:57Speaker 1: foundations might be classed as row houses, but are less
- 15:00Speaker 1: clearly delineated. One is the last state house group of
- 15:04Speaker 1: five units in the APVA grounds footnote one. After the
- 15:10Speaker 1: third state House burned, it was replaced on the same
- 15:13Speaker 1: foundations by the fourth and last state House, built on
- 15:17Speaker 1: Jamestown Island, which burned in sixteen ninety eight. The fifth
- 15:21Speaker 1: state House, now reconstructed at Williamsburg, also burned, continuing an
- 15:26Speaker 1: unhappy tradition that includes the destruction of the National Capitol
- 15:29Speaker 1: at Washington in eighteen fourteen and the Virginia State House
- 15:33Speaker 1: at Richmond in eighteen sixty five and a footnote. The
- 15:39Speaker 1: other multiple house is a three unit building midway between
- 15:43Speaker 1: the Brick Church and Orchard Run. This structure generally fits
- 15:47Speaker 1: the description of the first State House and its three
- 15:50Speaker 1: unit construction and dimensions, and has long been thought to
- 15:53Speaker 1: be the original state house building. The structure, however, is
- 15:57Speaker 1: as close to the present shoreline as the first state
- 16:00Speaker 1: houses recorded to have been in sixteen forty two, a
- 16:04Speaker 1: puzzling coincidence if the factor of erosion is taken into consideration.
- 16:10Speaker 1: Single brick houses these were once supposed to have been
- 16:15Speaker 1: very common at Jamestown, but are represented by only twelve foundations,
- 16:19Speaker 1: not all of which have been completely excavated. Like the
- 16:23Speaker 1: other excavated structures. If these houses can be related to
- 16:26Speaker 1: the ownership of the land tracks on which they once stood,
- 16:30Speaker 1: we may someday know more of their possible identity. Frame houses,
- 16:36Speaker 1: Partial or even whole brick footings do not always indicate
- 16:39Speaker 1: brick houses. At Jamestown. Some thirty structures have been recorded
- 16:43Speaker 1: which had brick footings or isolated brick fireplace foundations, the
- 16:48Speaker 1: appearance of which suggests frame houses. These may be briefly
- 16:52Speaker 1: classified as follows brick or brick and cobble wall footings,
- 16:57Speaker 1: with central chimney bases of brick two brick footing and
- 17:02Speaker 1: outside chimney three brick footing. Only ten brick chimney base
- 17:09Speaker 1: alone remaining twelve stone footing only, one sellar only presumed
- 17:17Speaker 1: to belong to frame or unfinished house, or to have
- 17:20Speaker 1: had all bricks salvaged, one burned earth floor area only
- 17:25Speaker 1: remaining presumed to mark a frame house one. Some of
- 17:30Speaker 1: the structures encountered in the first explorations remained to be
- 17:33Speaker 1: more fully excavated and recorded. Structures in this category total
- 17:38Speaker 1: twenty three miscellaneous structures. Because of the inadequacy of Jamestown
- 17:44Speaker 1: remains in records, it is difficult to determine the purposes
- 17:48Speaker 1: for which the various outbuildings were used. Doubtless many outbuildings
- 17:52Speaker 1: did exist for various purposes, and probably most of them
- 17:56Speaker 1: were not substantial enough to leave a trace clearly isolated.
- 18:01Speaker 1: Small structures properly called out buildings, discovered in nineteen fifty
- 18:05Speaker 1: five are all that will be sighted here. The first
- 18:09Speaker 1: is the large double chimney foundation just beyond the southwest
- 18:13Speaker 1: corner of the mansion, east of the museum. Undoubtedly this
- 18:18Speaker 1: belonged to a detached kitchen. The second is a small
- 18:22Speaker 1: but thick walled, rectangular structure of brick, which may have
- 18:25Speaker 1: been a food storehouse or even a powder magazine illustration caption.
- 18:32Speaker 1: Although most Jamestown workshops were probably made of framework and
- 18:36Speaker 1: were merely sheds, one brick foundation has three brick fireboxes
- 18:41Speaker 1: and a large brick chimney. This structure was probably a
- 18:44Speaker 1: brew house, bakery or distillery, and of caption workshop structures.
- 18:52Speaker 1: Most of the early industries at Jamestown were undoubtedly housed
- 18:56Speaker 1: in perishable wooden structures that have left the least evident tree,
- 19:01Speaker 1: such as frame sheds for forges and wine presses, carpenter shops,
- 19:06Speaker 1: and buildings used by various artisans and craftsmen. So far,
- 19:10Speaker 1: only two industrial structures are clearly recognizable aside from kilns,
- 19:15Speaker 1: although their precise use is not certain. One of these,
- 19:19Speaker 1: on the edge of Pitch and Tar Swamp, was a
- 19:22Speaker 1: nearly square tile floored workshop with a rough but substantial
- 19:26Speaker 1: brick foundation supporting the framework of the walls. On the
- 19:30Speaker 1: floor were three fire boxes, two of which were associated
- 19:34Speaker 1: with a large chimney area. What was fabricated here has
- 19:38Speaker 1: not yet been determined, although ceramic firing, brewing, distilling, and
- 19:43Speaker 1: even iron working have been suggested. Proximity of pottery and
- 19:47Speaker 1: lime burning kilns and a small pit where iron may
- 19:51Speaker 1: have been smelted may be significant. A second very fragmentary
- 19:56Speaker 1: brick foundation close to the present riverbank suggested shop rather
- 20:01Speaker 1: than a house, but lacks firebox evidence or other identifying features.
- 20:06Speaker 1: It may be eighteenth rather than seventeenth century. Illustration caption
- 20:12Speaker 1: Near the foundation of the probable bake shop a pair
- 20:15Speaker 1: of kilns, once served for slaking lime and perhaps for
- 20:19Speaker 1: firing pottery. Between the kilns was a flame scarred pit
- 20:23Speaker 1: containing evidence of iron working and the roasting of bog
- 20:26Speaker 1: ore for iron end of caption. Brick walks or paved areas.
- 20:34Speaker 1: It is difficult to assign a use for certain areas
- 20:37Speaker 1: which have been paved, apparently with brick rubble or in
- 20:40Speaker 1: more evident cases, by flat laid bricks. Four such paved
- 20:45Speaker 1: areas have been discovered brick drains. Three brick drains buried
- 20:51Speaker 1: beneath the humous line are identified with seventeenth century houses.
- 20:57Speaker 1: Ice storage pit, far unique on Jamestown Island is a circular,
- 21:02Speaker 1: unlined pit fourteen feet in top diameter, excavated seven feet
- 21:07Speaker 1: into a sandy substratum, and corresponding in general character to
- 21:12Speaker 1: known seventeenth and eighteenth century ice pits in England. This pit,
- 21:16Speaker 1: which lies two hundred fifty feet east of the visitor center,
- 21:20Speaker 1: may have served a spacious house which once stood nearby.
- 21:24Speaker 1: It may be assumed that the missing surface structure was circular,
- 21:27Speaker 1: probably a brick had a small door and was roofed
- 21:31Speaker 1: over with thatch or sod for insulation. Kilns, both brick
- 21:37Speaker 1: and lime kilns are present in the James City area,
- 21:40Speaker 1: each type being represented by four examples. The oldest of
- 21:45Speaker 1: four brick kilns so far discovered on the island is
- 21:48Speaker 1: a small rectangular pit near Orchard Run, excavated to a
- 21:52Speaker 1: floor depth of four feet, which has been dated between
- 21:56Speaker 1: sixteen oh seven and sixteen twenty five by associated cults objects.
- 22:01Speaker 1: This small pit, without structural brick, was a brick making
- 22:05Speaker 1: clamp consisting of unfired brick built up over two firing chambers.
- 22:11Speaker 1: There was good evidence that a pottery kiln was situated
- 22:14Speaker 1: thirty feet west of the industrial area iron working pits.
- 22:20Speaker 1: Also in the industrial area, near Pitch in tar Swamp,
- 22:24Speaker 1: there is a circular pit in which lime, bog, iron
- 22:27Speaker 1: and charcoal suggest the manufacture of iron. The previously mentioned
- 22:32Speaker 1: pit within the area of the Confederate fort yielded sword parts,
- 22:36Speaker 1: gun parts, bar iron, and small tools, indicating a forge site,
- 22:41Speaker 1: perhaps an armourer's forge. Illustration caption Making Pottery at Jamestown,
- 22:48Speaker 1: a conjectural sketch by Sydney E. King. And of caption.
- 22:53Speaker 1: Another illustration caption how an iron working pit was used
- 22:57Speaker 1: from contemporary sources. End of caption. Another illustration caption. Cross
- 23:04Speaker 1: section of a brick cased well at Jamestown, a conjectural
- 23:08Speaker 1: sketch by Sydney E. King. End of caption. Another illustration caption.
- 23:14Speaker 1: One of the intriguing mysteries of Jamestown is how the
- 23:17Speaker 1: left leg and left half of a human pelvis came
- 23:21Speaker 1: to be thrown with other refuse into a well behind
- 23:23Speaker 1: the row house. The logical inference is that a rebel
- 23:27Speaker 1: or criminal had been hanged, drawn and quartered. End of caption.
- 23:32Speaker 1: Wells at Jamestown, wells are conspicuous features near many house locations.
- 23:39Speaker 1: Those that have been found may be summarized as follows.
- 23:42Speaker 1: Woodlined one circular and brickcased ten circular uncased with wooden
- 23:49Speaker 1: barrel at bottom, six circular uncased incompletely excavated. Four. Wells
- 23:58Speaker 1: are invariably found filled with earth mixed with trash, mainly
- 24:02Speaker 1: food animal bones. A well located immediately north of the
- 24:06Speaker 1: row house had a human left leg and left half
- 24:09Speaker 1: of the pelvis buried in the fill at a depth
- 24:11Speaker 1: of four feet. Ditches. The most significant feature determining landholdings
- 24:18Speaker 1: are the ditches of the Jamestown area. During the nineteen
- 24:22Speaker 1: fifty four to fifty six explorations, sixty three ditches were
- 24:26Speaker 1: added to the thirty three previously discovered, thus increasing the
- 24:31Speaker 1: opportunity to delineate property lines, many of which used to
- 24:35Speaker 1: be bounded by such ditches. Illustration caption. Careful excavation was
- 24:41Speaker 1: required to identify the fill of long obliterated ditches once
- 24:45Speaker 1: draining fields and marking property boundaries, and of caption refuse pits.
- 24:52Speaker 1: James City, like all other settlements in all ages, had
- 24:57Speaker 1: to have places for disposal of refuse. That much refuse
- 25:01Speaker 1: was disposed of by casting it in the James River
- 25:03Speaker 1: is unlikely, since before the dawn of history it has
- 25:07Speaker 1: been a trade of man to live on top of
- 25:09Speaker 1: his own refuse rather than litera shore with it. While
- 25:13Speaker 1: it may be that no pits were dug purposely for refuse, disposal,
- 25:17Speaker 1: pits open for brick or ceramic clay or dug for
- 25:21Speaker 1: ice houses, wells or other purposes, and later abandoned were
- 25:25Speaker 1: used for dumping trash. In nineteen fifty five, a refuse
- 25:30Speaker 1: pit almost forty feet square was discovered in the industrial
- 25:34Speaker 1: area near the workshop iron working pit and pottery kilns,
- 25:38Speaker 1: filled with trash from the first half of the seventeenth century.
- 25:42Speaker 1: This pit contained such artifacts as a swept hilt rapier
- 25:46Speaker 1: made about sixteen hundred, a cutlass, the breastpiece and back
- 25:51Speaker 1: piece of a light suit of armour, a number of
- 25:54Speaker 1: utensils of metal, ceramics and glass to add to the
- 25:58Speaker 1: collection of early seventeen cents tree arts and crafts. Several
- 26:02Speaker 1: smaller refuse pits were noted, and it is worth commenting
- 26:05Speaker 1: that many ditches finally became trash accumulation areas. Illustration caption
- 26:12Speaker 1: A cutlass and excellent preservation and many other objects from
- 26:15Speaker 1: seventeenth century Jamestown were found in a large clay borrow
- 26:19Speaker 1: pit filled with refuse end of caption. Roads. Only one
- 26:26Speaker 1: road identified by seventeenth century references has been definitely located
- 26:31Speaker 1: by archaeologists. This is the main cart road sometimes called
- 26:36Speaker 1: the Great Road, leading from Glasshouse Point across the Isthmus
- 26:40Speaker 1: and onto the island, where it can be traced as
- 26:43Speaker 1: far as its passage into the Maine James City area.
- 26:47Speaker 1: Just north of the Brick Church and churchyard, a trace
- 26:51Speaker 1: is all that remains of a road which once ran
- 26:53Speaker 1: east west between parallel ditches south of the Rowhouse. The
- 26:58Speaker 1: foregoing has been a summary of the physical aspect of
- 27:01Speaker 1: the Jamestown settlement from the standpoint of archaeology. An account
- 27:05Speaker 1: of the arts and crafts revealed by the artifacts found
- 27:08Speaker 1: in these explorations follows. The whole story relating the settlers
- 27:12Speaker 1: themselves to evidence they left in the soil of Jamestown
- 27:16Speaker 1: remains to be told. End of Section one.