THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 18, 1995 TAG: 9512180030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: JAMESTOWN LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
Archaeologist William Kelso ignores the cold, sharp wind that claws from a sky the color of old bone. Small diamond-shaped trowel in hand, Kelso ambles nimbly up, over and into the rectangular trenches that could prove the most important excavations of his 33-year career.
Here, he points with his trowel to faint markings in the compressed soil, perhaps indicating a length of palisaded wooden walls. There, stretching toward the James River, he has found curved impressions - perhaps a battlement for one or more 17th century cannons.
Could these be the outlines of James Fort, circa 1607, long thought drowned under encroaching river waters? If so, the find would rank as one of the biggest of this century for American Colonial archaeology.
``I'm not ready to say,'' Kelso said. ``I'm convinced we've found a part of the (original) fort settlement. Even if this isn't James Fort, I'll take it. It sure is significant, whatever it is.''
The week before Christmas, Kelso's crew is literally putting the wraps on 7,200 square feet of exposed earth, covering carefully sculpted trenches, outcroppings and hollows with black plastic sheets held down by sandbags. The project to find the fort, run by Kelso for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, is battening down for the winter.
When the dig resumes, in warmer weather, Kelso may be able to solve the mystery.
``You have to be careful. This is the beginning of so much that is American culture,'' he said. ``At some point we'll have to take the bull by the horns and say, `OK, is this the fort or isn't it?'
``We don't yet have a big enough piece of the puzzle.''
Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, was founded in mid-May 1607. Nearly 390 years later, in April 1994, the APVA announced a 10-year, $3 million project called Jamestown Rediscovery to pinpoint the fort's remains.
Regardless of whether Kelso and his colleagues succeed, they already have unearthed a treasure trove of early 17th century artifacts - some 80,000 cataloged items. At least 10,000 await cleaning and storage in a modest laboratory complex housed in a building not far from the excavations.
``It's like a detective story,'' said project curator Beverly Straube. ``What is this? Why is this here? What was life like in the early 17th century?''
Some items seem so mundane as to be worthless: pottery shards, pieces of fish bones, bits of cracked pipe stems. And others - buttons, coins and coinlike objects called jettons, used initially for mathematical calculations and then as game tokens - were thought so commonplace or trivial as to not merit mention in the written accounts of the day.
But there are signs aplenty of military life: a nearly complete helmet, parts of sword hilts, knife blades and pieces from the firing mechanisms of 17th century muskets and pistols.
Perhaps most significant is evidence of extensive crafts activity - glassware, copper pendants and beads. Earthenware crucibles, used to manufacture certain glass or metal objects, also have been found.
Taken together, those fragments could flesh out 17th century history, providing unprecedented detail on everything from the evolution of technology to the complex politics among native peoples and the English colonists.
For example, the role that copper played at Jamestown could have guaranteed survival of the colony, at least in the first few years of its tenuous existence. The metal, valued as a sign of wealth and power by native Americans, could be obtained from the English - but not from other, hostile tribes to the west and north, who mined and produced it.
Although the struggling settlers were harmed by occasional Indian raids, as copper suppliers, they were, nevertheless, protected to some degree. Protected, that is, until large quantities of copper began to arrive from England, bringing on more determined tribal assaults beginning in the early 1620s.
Surprisingly, Kelso and Straube say, interest in Jamestown Rediscovery is particularly keen in England. London, the wellspring of Colonial-era archaeology, yields historical details only grudgingly because of continual human disturbance over the centuries, as well as damage sustained during World War II.
For archaeologist and historian alike, Kelso said, the Jamestown findings are akin to the recovery of an information-rich time capsule.
``These are the earliest artifacts found in Virginia,'' he said. ``It says: early English settlement, military outpost. This would have been like a bivouac - not tents, but not hard architecture, either.''
The APVA was created in 1889 by Norfolk resident Mary Jeffrey Galt. The association remains a largely volunteer organization, with more than 4,000 active members and roughly 30 historic sites statewide.
Of the 1,500 total acres on Jamestown Island, most are owned by the National Park Service. The James Fort dig is taking place on a portion of 22 1/2 acres owned by the APVA.
``If you don't know where you've been, it's hard to know where you're going,'' said curator Straube. ``This is where our laws took shape. This is really where it all began.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot
Archaeologist William Kelso is leading the Jamestown dig. ``Even if
this isn't James Fort,'' Kelso says, ``I'll take it. It sure is
significant, whatever it is.''
Visitors to Jamestown watch the dig in progress. This week, the
archaeology crew is wrapping up for the winter.
Among the artifacts are clues to a military life: parts of sword
hilts, knife blades and pieces from muskets and pistols.
Photo by BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot
Alaric Faulkner, a professor from the University of Maine, spent a
week at the Jamestown site, digging and sifting dirt, looking for
artifacts of the original settlers of the fort.
KEYWORDS: ARTIFACTS by CNB