Sword, armor found buried inside remains of James

[Story]

Sword, armor found buried inside remains of James Fort

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?...4313&ran=209568

By DIANE TENNANT, The Virginian-Pilot

© May 9, 2007 | Last updated 1:49 PM May. 9

JAMESTOWN – A cache of armor from the early 1600s has been discovered by archaeologists excavating a trash pit inside the remains of James Fort.

Queen Elizabeth II viewed the objects during her visit Friday, observing a broadsword with a basket hilt, an iron pole, the hilt from a rapier and armor pieces that would have protected the thigh.

“It may be like the tip of an iceberg,” said William Kelso, director of archaeology for APVA Preservation Virginia, in a press release. “We’ll see as we uncover more of it in the next few days.”

The armor was partly uncovered last week, about 3 feet below what would have been ground level in the early 1600s. The pit itself is 19 feet square. Because the layers slump toward the center, archaeologists think it may have been a well that went bad, and was then used for trash.

Glass trade beads, baubles, chess pieces, iron objects and pottery shards have also been found in the pit. Indian artifacts found there include a grinding stone, a bone needle and shell beads. Animal remains include oysters, sturgeon, crab claws, fish, bird, turtle, deer and goat.

Kelso speculated that it could be the first well dug by colonist John Smith in 1608-09. Archaeologists can date it by the artifacts, which include a coin dated 1613 found near the top, and by the fact that the pit is under the foundation of a building constructed in 1617.

Furthermore, historical accounts mention that military equipment was buried in the fort in June 1610, when the colonists decided to abandon Jamestown after the “Starving Time” winter. The day after they left, they were forced to return by Lord De La Warre, whose supply fleet coming up the James River met the dispirited colonists coming down.

Archaeologists also plan to work on a site this summer that they hope contains remnants of the first church built for the colony.

Archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson, left, and Luke Pecoraro carefully begin excavating a potential cache of arms and armor that so far includes a broad sword with a basket hilt and blade, armor that protects the thigh and a rapier hilt, discovered recently at Historic Jamestowne.

Archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson, left, and Luke Pecoraro carefully begin excavating a potential cache of arms and armor that so far includes a broad sword with a basket hilt and blade, armor that protects the thigh and a rapier hilt, discovered recently at Historic Jamestowne. PHOTO BY MICHAEL LAVIN / APVA PRESERVATION VIRGINIA

[jessie k.]

Wouldn't that be a dream of a summer job?

[pyrateleather]

Wow! I wanna find buried treasure!

[Salty]

ahhhhhhhhh for the lovely days of digging in midden heaps

[Story]

Related -

Updated:2007-05-12 21:43:10

Boat Retraces Jamestown Trip for Anniversary

By SONJA BARISIC

AP

JAMESTOWN, Va. (May 12) - A group of modern-day John Smiths rowed away Saturday in a small, open boat from the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, which Smith helped found 400 years ago this weekend.

The replica of a boat like one Smith used to explore the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries shoved off as the commemoration of Jamestown's anniversary entered a second day filled with concerts, cultural and artistic demonstrations and military drills.

President Bush is to speak Sunday, the closing day of the festivities and the actual anniversary of the settlers' arrival at this swampy island on the James River on May 13, 1607.

The boat's 121-day voyage over 1,500 miles will retrace much of Smith's journey and inaugurate the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the country's first national historic water trail.

"This is all just kind of overwhelming," the captain, Ian Bystrom, said before the boat left. "I'm used to just sailing boats and teaching kids and the next thing you know, we're here on the 400th anniversary."

The boat departed from Historic Jamestowne, where the colonists built a triangular fort.

Archaeologists found the fort's remains, long thought to have been washed away, in the mid-1990s. Since then, they've unearthed more than 1 million artifacts.

On Saturday, dozens of visitors ringed the fort site to watch archaeologists sift through the soil and show off some of their recent finds, including a sword that was among armor and weapons buried in a well that became a trash pit.

Several hundred cheering people lined the shore of the river as Bystrom, followed by his crew of 11, slowly stepped onto large rocks at the water's edge and into the 28-foot boat, called a shallop.

"There they go," someone shouted as six crew members began rowing away from the island while Bystrom stood in the stern.

The boat will stop at more than 20 spots in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington before returning to Jamestown on Sept. 8. The crew will attempt to complete the entire trip entirely by oar and sail.

Workers with the nonprofit Sultana Projects Inc. of Chestertown, Md., crafted the boat using mostly tools like those in Smith's time.

Smith's trip in 1608 yielded a comprehensive map that guided English settlers for nearly a century.

Smith observed the bay's ecosystem along the way, and the new national trail will do the same with a system of "smart" buoys that will collect information about water and atmospheric conditions and transmit them wirelessly, said retired Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Smith's crew ran low on food and water two days into their trip and turned to the native Indians for help.

Stephen Adkins, chief of the Chickahominy tribe in Virginia, said the modern boat's crew has an edge over Smith because they went to the Chickahominy Tribal Center to learn about the Indians of the early 17th century and of today.

"We need to give these folks a hand for trying to get it right," Adkins said during a ceremony before the boat left.

About 70 people demonstrated Saturday outside the visitors center at Historic Jamestowne, shouting "black power" and "red power" and "shame on Jamestown."

Malik Shabazz, president of the group Black Lawyers for Justice, said Jamestown's founding marked the roots of black enslavement and Indian genocide.

There is "no reason to celebrate the founding of Jamestown," Shabazz said. "The no-good, so-called Jamestown settlers ... have nothing but blood on their hands."

Organizers have been careful to call the anniversary event a "commemoration" instead of a "celebration."

With the arrival of the English, native Indian tribes eventually were pushed off their lands, and slavery in America is traced to Jamestown, where the first Africans in the country arrived in 1619. This year's anniversary is the first to focus on all three of those cultures.

[John Maddox Roberts]

I'm always amazed at these finds of discarded armor and such. Every scrap of metal had to be shipped over from Europe. You'd think that the stuff would be recycled by smiths and tinkers for making hinges, straps and so forth. You could get several good knives from a sword blade. Yet they just threw them away. No competent craftsmen present? Or did they think the metal coming from overseas was sufficient? Of course, I'm grateful that they did it.

[Story]

I'm always amazed at these finds of discarded armor and such. Every scrap of metal had to be shipped over from Europe. You'd think that the stuff would be recycled by smiths and tinkers for making hinges, straps and so forth. You could get several good knives from a sword blade. Yet they just threw them away. No competent craftsmen present? Or did they think the metal coming from overseas was sufficient? Of course, I'm grateful that they did it.

The operative word is *cache*. Obviously, they buried it with the intent to dig it up later, but for whatever reason couldn't/didn't.

Furthermore, historical accounts mention that military equipment was buried in the fort in June 1610, when the colonists decided to abandon Jamestown after the “Starving Time” winter.

[Story]

A man carries a "rifle" at Jamestown Settlement, a museum of 17th-century colonial Virginia, in Williamsburg, Virginia, May 1, 2007. In a high-tech age of instant communication, old-fashioned history is enjoying a renaissance in U.S. popular culture. REUTERS/Jim Young

[blackjohn]

The operative word is *cache*. Obviously, they buried it with the intent to dig it up later, but for whatever reason couldn't/didn't.

Odd how that works... I buried something once, with every intention of digging it up at a later point in time. I marked the spot well enough, but in the course of a decade or so, the area became overgrown, the mark moved a bit, and, long story short, after digging for hours and hours in the blazing heat, through dirt, clay and sand, I had a hole at least chest deep, shaped like an upside down mushroom probably a good five feet round, and never did find the thing I had buried.

[BriarRose Kildare]

Thank ye Story for yer post on such an exquisite find. I am very fasinated by history and what treasures can be found with in the earth. I am a true archeologist at heart....and I sure miss the days with gettin' me hands in the dirt. If I could have a dream job it would be and Archeologist. So thanks again for sharing.

[Lady Alyx]

Story, I agree with you about it being buried, but if they left the fort like that "starving winter" scenario. I am inclined to think they did not want it to fall into any enemy types 'hands' to find it to add to their own aid.