On Oct 30, 2008, at 10:12 AM, Emily Rose wrote:
>> remarkable testimony to the ways that 15 years of
>> archaeological excavations by Kelso and his team have transformed our
>> knowledge of the early decades of the first settlement.
>>
>
> What knowledge would members of this list say was *transformed* (as
> opposed to deepened and enriched)?
> Has our knowledge changed or have the questions we ask changed?
Both. For instance, the fort was supposed to have been eroded into the
river. Archaeology showed otherwise. That's a major issue to say the
least. I would have to say that the methods used for excavation and
the knowledge of historical parallels were the major difference
between the 1950's and the current dig. The former model had a
"Jamestown Settlement" type of earthwork which the real deal wasn't.
Detailed stratigraphic excavation enabled a far better information
recovery than before. More details, better interpretation.
Also, given that the interpretations of the historical literature are
replete with references to useless gentlemen, fops and dilettantes,
the actual make-up of people was a lot more nuanced than that. For
instance, the numbers of men of science indicated a serious effort by
the planners to make sense of their environment. Detailed exploration
of the rivers and bay were done with a view for resource discovery and
use.
Also, John Smith has gone from hero to rogue braggart to something
more accurate based upon subsequent research. For instance, his coat
of arms had 3 Turks heads on it. That was thought to be fanciful until
the Turkish archives showed that he challenged the best Turkish
swordsman to single combat and took off his head, whereupon #2 tried
with the same result. Not being particularly quick on the uptake, #3
also tried and that is why Smith's coat of arms reflects what he did.
Smith, having dealt with similar societies in the Near East, knew how
to "deal" with the Powhatans, something that his successors were
clueless about, resulting in the two major wars of 1622 and 1644. So
Smith went from a bull in a china shop to a more fully understood
character.
>
>
> Jon: I, for one, would welcome a discussion about the anniversary
> and its presentation on this list.
> Having studied and lectured on Jamestown while we living in England,
> I took my children back to the US for the celebration and got to
> see it through their eyes as well.
> To my mind there has been far too little discussion *after the fact*
> of the celebration, what it set out to accomplish, whether it
> realized its ambitions, and what was learned.
The 1957 Exposition featured massive buildings, basically the CNU
campus and a grand display of the commemorative event. The event also
produced a number of good books. The 1907 Exposition also resulted in
some good books. One can definitely see a degradation of result in the
content of the books in the 100 years. T. L. Watson's Mineral
Resources of Virginia was a superb book and is still very useful. The
handful of small publications in 1957 was also useful, but far less in
depth, although the breadth was far wider and included the Native
Americans for the first time as anything other than bit players. The
2007 event didn't have massive buildings, but featured more of a local
and community based effort more given to ceremony than content. The
Archaeological Society of Virginia publication set was a re-
publication of previously published articles rather than something
new, and I say this as a Board member of ASV. But I suppose it's a
sign of the times that the time it takes to produce something new
takes years of pre-planning, which we all had, but what we didn't have
was the time to devote to getting something new out. Bill Kelso's book
was the beacon of light in an otherwise relatively dark sky for
archaeology which by rights ought to have been in the forefront of that.
Lyle Browning
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> When your life is on the go—take your life with you.
> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/115298558/direct/01/
> ______________________________________
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the
> instructions at
> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
