Good to read this... as is the current issue of National Geographic. -Melinda -- Melinda C. P. Skinner Richmond, VA -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Bob Shriner <[log in to unmask]> > > It's good to see that our English colleagues are attempting to tell the correct > story. This story appears in the May 3 on-line edition of the BBC. > > :-) Bob > ******************************* > Robert D. Shriner ([log in to unmask]) > Warrenton, Virginia U.S.A > 540/349-8193 Cell: 703/795-4355 > ******************************* > Blessed are the flexible, for they shall > not get bent out of shape > -----Original Message----- > > Putting Jamestown into context By Malcolm Billings > BBC News, Jamestown > > The Queen has arrived in the US to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the > first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia - although many > Americans will still tell you it was in Plymouth, Massachusetts - 13 years > later. > "They all thought that I'd taken leave of my senses," archaeologist Bill Kelso > told me when we met by the James River. "Everyone," he said, "believed that the > Jamestown fort of 1607 had been washed away and lost to the river". "When I > started to dig in 1993 my archaeological expedition had a staff of one and that > was me." Bill Kelso led me to the river bank where he began to dig with a > trowel in 1993. "Quite near the surface I struck some pieces of pottery and a > clay pipe. I'd seen the same sort of thing on 17th century sites in England so I > kept digging," he said. > Archaeological remains By 2003, archaeologists had revealed the remains of > the triangular palisade and the towers of the fort which the settlers had built > in only 19 days. Half of them died soon after from heat and exhaustion. The > fort is just over one square acre in size and is packed with archaeological > remains. They found the foundations of Elizabethan half-timbered houses with > thatched roofs. More than 750,000 artefacts have been recovered from the site > - the site that was not supposed to be there. Another archaeologist came up > with a paper sack full of things he had found that morning. > > " Historians in the 19th century were looking for a more noble beginning and > opted for The Pilgrim Fathers. They landed in Plymouth in 1620 - 13 years after > Jamestown." > -- Bly Straube, museum curator > > > > He tipped them out on a trestle table - pottery shards, clay pipes and short > lengths of greenish looking metal. "That's copper," Bill Kelso explained. "They > had this, along with beads, to trade with the Indians." The first settlers had > among them the younger sons of gentry families who kept up appearances and > continued to dress like gentlemen. Buttons from jackets give a clue to the > quality of their clothes. One personal item must have belonged to a man of > means. It is made of silver, about two inches long and in the shape of a > dolphin. Coming out of the dolphin's mouth is a curved pick used to clean teeth > - while the other end - at the tail of the dolphin, there is a tiny silver spoon > used for getting wax out of gentlemen's ears. > Damp conditions The Queen will see some of the finest objects that are now > in the newly opened site museum which the Americans curiously call an > Archaearium. One exhibition is a reconstruction of a deep well that was packed > with stuff that had fallen in or been thrown away. There were parts of a suit > of armour - a breast plate and helmet. There was an axe head and other iron > tools. Part of a bucket and rope survived, loads of pottery and the remains of > deer and fish bones. The damp conditions in the well meant that everything > including leather shoes had been preserved. Jamestown as a settlement had > always been known to historians. It is the discovery of layers of objects that > add such an important new dimension to the story of the founding of English > America that is new. So why was Jamestown largely ignored by Americans? It > was, after all, the capital of Virginia for almost 100 years. "It's partly to > do with image and a bad press," Bly Straube, the curator of the new site museum > explained. At the beginning it was a nightmare of a place. They arrived in a > drought with a charter from King James to find gold, keep the Spanish out of > North America and find a new route to the riches of the East. But in 1609 they > starved and died like flies. There is even documentary evidence to suggest that > at one point they ate each other. > Pilgrim fathers Nineteenth century historians had little respect for the > settlers whom they described as lazy and incompetent. In short, Jamestown was a > fiasco. Virginia was also on the wrong side in the civil war. Sitting on top > of Jamestown fort are the remains of a confederate gun emplacement. > "Historians in the 19th century were looking for a more noble beginning and > opted for The Pilgrim Fathers," Bly Straube explained. "They landed in > Plymouth in 1620. They had their women and children, and were determined to > forge a new life with religious freedom in a new England." That read much > better than the story of the commercially driven Virginia company with its > slaves and tobacco in the background, and reports of violence and cannibalism. > With the history of settlement re-versioned, the Thanksgiving holiday became > associated with the ideals of the Pilgrim Fathers and although nothing remains > to be seen of Plymouth's original settlement today most Americans will tell you > that Plymouth is where it all began. Remarkable archaeological discoveries > have put Jamestown back on the map and all we need now, says Bly Straube is > another holiday straight after Thanksgiving called Jamestown day. > ________________________________________________________________________ > AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL > at AOL.com.