Jamestown - Time Team Dig

I saw a Time Time special at an archeological dig at the site of the original Jamestown settlement in Virginia, USA. The colony was burned down at the end of the 17th century and subsequently abandoned. Over time it was forgotten about and for a long time it has been believed that the remains of the settlement had been lost to the sea due to erosion. However 13 years ago, it was discovered that this was not the case and they've been digging ever since.

First they found the 3 walls of the triangular shaped fort, then they started digging inside what was the fort. One of the most important finds was a square well. After considerable research back in England, it is thought that the reason it is square is because a couple of the colonists were miners who had dug square mineshafts very similar to the well (workers in a mining company owned by one of the Jamestown company's investors). Digging in the well they found all sorts of items, a child's shoe, tobacco pipe (one of the colonists was a pipe maker), a pistol, a halberd, items of clothing. In the mud they had been remarkably well preserved.

The houses in the fort were made of wattle & daub walls, thatched roof and wooden frame. The type of house particular to a part of Lincolnshire where Capn John Smith was from (also a carpenter from Lincolnshire was in the first wave of colonists - he probably built the houses).

It was an interesting programme, and one of the interesting things about it was the way they related archeological finds to the actual colonists by doing historical research into the colonists that set up the colony, where they were from, their occupations etc. It personalised the story a lot more - prior to seeing this programme the majority of names I knew were the names of the colony's many governors/presidents. It would be an interesting exercise to research the names, occupations and backgrounds to all the colonists, and see how they may have fitted in the overall building of the colony etc. If I wished to research further, there are many layers of the Jamestown onion to peel back yet...