Friday, September 13, 1996

Dig Into Past Unearths Legendary Fort

Science: Archeologists
working on Virginias
Jamestown Island say they
have found remnants of
Americas first permanent
English settlement.
By JOSH GREENBERD
TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTONArcheologists say they have found

the remains of the first permanent
English Settlement in America the
fort at Jamestown Island, VA- a
nearly 400-year-old structure that was
long thought lost to history.
Discovery of the structure, a
fort built in 1607, would be among
the most important archeological
finds in American history if
confirmed by further digging and
research.
From this tiny isolated
evolved our political institutions,
language, our commerce and much of
our culture, said archeologist
William Kelso, who led the project
for the Assn. for the Preservation of
Virginia Antiquities. No other
American site predates Jamestown in
national historical significance.
Virginia Gov. George F.
Allen said simply: We have
discovered Americas birthplace.

The dig has unearthed lines

in the soil, a palisade trench, post
holes and a network of drainage
ditches-all in pattern consistent with
what is known about the structure, a
distinctive-looking triangle- shaped
fort that measured 420 feet by 300
feet by 300 feet, Kelso said.
Archeologists and others are
confident that the discovery is indeed
the fort, said Ken Stroupe, Allens
press secretary. All research and tests
on items from the site support the
teams conclusions, and so far no one
has challenged the authenticity of the
find, he said.
For more than 100 years
historians have assumed that the fort
vanished beneath the James River, a
theory that has discouraged
archeologists from digging at the site.
The National Park Service led a dig
with the preservation association
some years ago but little was found.
More than two years ago, the
association, which has owned most
historic 221/2 acres of the 1,600-acre
island since the late 1800s, hired
Kelso to direct another dig in hopes
of finding artifacts in preparation for
the 400th anniversary of the settlement
in 2007.
There was also some small
hope that his team of nine
archeologists, 100 college students
and local volunteers would find the
fort itself.

On April 4, 1994, his first

day on the job, Kelso uncovered a
piece of broken pottery. The shard
matched the pottery he had seen only
weeks before in Portsmouth, Britain,
that had been salvages from an
English ship called the Mary, Rose,
which sank off the English coast in
1545.
To date, in addition to the
fort, the team has uncovered more
than 100,000 artifacts, including a
soldiers helmet, a breastplate of
armor, jewelry, a sword, clay pipes,
coins and the grave of an early settlera man in his 20s who had been shot
in the leg.
Jamestown was settled in
1607 when the three ships carrying
100 men and four boys landed at the
site, only to face disease, starvation,
inclement weather and hostile
natives. Fifty-one died within six
months, and only 38 had survived by
the eighth month of settlement.
Those Men were saved by
the disciplined leadership of Capt.
John Smith.
Smith, according to a
mixture of history and legend, was
ambushed by Algonquin natives and
carried back to Powhatan, the
Algonquin chief, at Werwocomoco.
The chief, impressed with Smiths
ivory-and-glass pocket compass,
welcomed him, fed him and then
prepared to have him killed.

But Pocahontas, Powhatans

11- year old daughter, covered
Smiths body with her own, pleaded
with her father and persuaded him to
spare Smiths life.
The story is dubious, but it
has become one of Americas most
enduring.
In following years,
Jamestown became the site of the first
elected assembly in North America
and the home of the first commercial
venture in the English- occupied New
World, Allen said, calling it the
source spring of American
democracy.
The preservation
associations dig, called Jamestown
Rediscovery, has cost about
$700,000, with more than half of the
funds coming from the state of
Virginia. The federal government
paid $190,000 of the cost through a
grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
Support also has come from
organizations like the National
Geographic Society and the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration, which supplied X-ray
equipment typically used to search
for cracks in space vehicles. The
equipment was used by archeologists
at Jamestown to look past corrosion
and reveal the fine details of artifacts.