01/01/11 - NNHS Newsletter

"What started at Jamestown in 1607 changed the world."

Constructed soon after a January 1608 fire destroyed many of the first buildings at James Fort, the church measured 60 feet long and ranked as the fledging outpost's largest and most important structure.

Despite that size, its footprint eluded Kelso and his team for years, cloaked in the confusion of artifacts and archaeological features churned up by nearly 400 years of subsequent building, farmers' plows and the 1861 construction of a large Confederate earthwork.

The first clues to its survival appeared in early summer when students from the project's field school discovered a pair of unusually large rectangular stains hidden beneath a deep layer of modern fill near the fort's center.

Probing through the soil, the archaeologists found virtually no artifacts, brick or organic material, indicating a very early date in Jamestown's history. But they still didn't understand how the features could have survived the Civil War excavation that destroyed so much evidence in the middle of the settlement.

As they continued to excavate deeper, however, the secret of both the postholes' survival and their identity started to become clear.

"I've uncovered at least 150 post-built structures. And if this had been like any of those, it would have been stripped away. But these postholes are just so big and deep that they survived," Kelso said.

"This was a modern building — a frontier cathedral — with a large, open space inside — bigger than anything we've ever found."

Over the course of the summer, the team unearthed a pattern of equally spaced postholes that not only matched the 60-foot length of the church but also defined its chancel.

They also pinpointed the location of the altar where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married in 1614.

"It's not like we have to say anymore that she was married someplace in Jamestown," Kelso says.

"Now we can point to the spot where she stood."

		Mark St. John Erickson, merickson@dailypress.com \| 247-4783 6:37 a.m. EST, December 31, 2010 JAMES CITY - Archaeology Magazine has named the discovery of the historic 1608 church unearthed at Jamestown this past year as one of the world's 10 most significant archaeological finds during 2010. Featured in the January-February edition of the internationally known publication, the annual selection puts the Jamestown Rediscovery project in the company of such milestone achievements as the discovery of a 4^th-century Mayan royal tomb in Guatemala, the unearthing of two ancient pyramid complexes near the Amazon lowlands of Peru and the uncovering of a 3.6-million-year-old skeleton of an early hominid on the Ethiopian plains. "It's great recognition of Jamestown's importance internationally," said project director William M. Kelso, who began looking for the pioneering English fort and its historic church more than 15 years ago.
An aerial view of Jamestowne Island with the church and Jamestown Rediscovery site. (Daily Press File Photo / December 31, 2010)

"What started at Jamestown in 1607 changed the world." Constructed soon after a January 1608 fire destroyed many of the first buildings at James Fort, the church measured 60 feet long and ranked as the fledging outpost's largest and most important structure. Despite that size, its footprint eluded Kelso and his team for years, cloaked in the confusion of artifacts and archaeological features churned up by nearly 400 years of subsequent building, farmers' plows and the 1861 construction of a large Confederate earthwork. The first clues to its survival appeared in early summer when students from the project's field school discovered a pair of unusually large rectangular stains hidden beneath a deep layer of modern fill near the fort's center. Probing through the soil, the archaeologists found virtually no artifacts, brick or organic material, indicating a very early date in Jamestown's history. But they still didn't understand how the features could have survived the Civil War excavation that destroyed so much evidence in the middle of the settlement. As they continued to excavate deeper, however, the secret of both the postholes' survival and their identity started to become clear. "I've uncovered at least 150 post-built structures. And if this had been like any of those, it would have been stripped away. But these postholes are just so big and deep that they survived," Kelso said. "This was a modern building — a frontier cathedral — with a large, open space inside — bigger than anything we've ever found." Over the course of the summer, the team unearthed a pattern of equally spaced postholes that not only matched the 60-foot length of the church but also defined its chancel. They also pinpointed the location of the altar where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married in 1614. "It's not like we have to say anymore that she was married someplace in Jamestown," Kelso says. "Now we can point to the spot where she stood." Copyright © 2010, Newport News, Va., Daily Press From the Daily Press - 12/31/10 - "Pipes for the powerful of 1600s unearthed at Jamestown, showing tobacco's weight in settlement": MICHAEL FELBERBAUM AP Tobacco Writer 8:42 a.m. EST, December 31, 2010 RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Archeologists at Jamestown have unearthed a trove of tobacco pipes personalized for a who's who of early 17th century colonial and British elites, underscoring the importance of tobacco to North America's first permanent English settlement. The white clay pipes — actually, castoffs likely rejected during manufacturing — were crafted between 1608 and 1610 and bear the names of English politicians, social leaders, explorers, officers of the Virginia Company that financed the settlement and governors of the Virginia colony. Archeologists also found equipment used to make the pipes. Researchers believe the pipes recovered from a well in James Fort were made to impress investors and the political elite with the financial viability of the settlement. They are likely the rejects that failed to survive the ceramic firing process in a kiln. The find comprises more than 100 pipes or fragments. More than a dozen are stamped with diamond shapes and inscribed with the names or initials of luminaries including explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, who dispatched the colonists to the territory he named Virginia. He also is credited with popularizing tobacco in England and is said to have smoked a pipe just before being executed for treason in 1618. Other names include Capt. Samuel Argall, a major Virginia Company investor and governor of Virginia; Sir Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral of England; and Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley, a Virginia Company official who was also William Shakespeare's major patron. "It really brings the people back into the picture," said Bly Straube, senior archaeological curator for the Jamestown Rediscovery Project. "We have a lot of artifacts that we can associate with types of people like gentleman or women or children, but to find things like the pipe that bears the name Sir Walter Raleigh, I mean, my goodness. ... It just makes it very tangible and real." The discovery casts lights on the social, political and economic network behind the Jamestown venture that started in 1607, as well as the importance of tobacco to the settlement, said William Kelso, director of archaeological research and interpretation at Historic Jamestowne. Smoking imported tobacco was very popular in Europe in the early 17th century. After settlers arrived at Jamestown, tobacco quickly became the American colony's chief export. Among the immigrants Capt. Francis Nelson brought to Jamestown in 1608 was Robert Cotton, a tobacco pipe maker who likely fashioned the pipes found in the well. In 1614, the first shipment of Virginia tobacco was sold in London. Jamestown's tobacco exports to Europe grew from 10 tons in 1619 to 750 tons in 1639. "Tobacco, whose goodnesse mine own experience and triall induces me to be such, that no country under the Sunne, may, or doth affoord more pleasant, sweet and strong Tobacco, then I have tasted," Ralph Hamor, a secretary of the colony, wrote in 1614. "I doubt not, (we) will make and returne such Tobacco this yeere, that even England shall acknowledge the goodnesse thereof." Tobacco's popularity created a large demand for pipes that were typically made in London using white clay from Dorset, along England's southern coast. Interested in the lucrative new industry, investors in the Virginia Company sought to add pipemaking to its trades and sought out adequate clay from the surrounding area. Settlers, Kelso said, were under "tremendous pressure" to give investors the instant gratification they needed because "they put so much money into it," and didn't want to lose their lifeline to England. Colonists tried different trades such as silk making, glassmaking, lumber, sassafras and tar, with no financial success. "The whole idea was to make money for investors and they enlisted all these specialists that would search Virginia for profitable resources that they could exploit," Straube said. "Tobacco was the quickest and easiest and most successful." The survival of the pipes suggest that many more individualized pipes may have been made for investors and other powerful members of the 17th-century British establishment. Their discovery also may lead to new examination of thousands of other artifacts recovered at Jamestown for further context on colonists' lives. "Each new discovery has meaning beyond its own significance," Straube said. "It can make us look at the past in a different way, and that's kind of the exciting thing about these pipes."