By Mark St. John Erickson, [email protected] | 247-4783
Most believed the pioneering outpost had disappeared into the James River by the 1800s. Some noted that Kelso himself was among several luckless archaeologists who had probed the site before and come away empty handed.
But 17 years after first sinking their shovels into the soil, Kelso and his team have not only found the “Holy Grail” of American archaeology but also rewritten the story of the nation’s first permanent English settlement.
Instead of being lost, building after building left its footprint in the ground, preserving a townscape that was previously known only through scattered descriptions. A million artifacts have surfaced too, debunking many long-held myths about the Jamestown colonists’ character.
When the team uncovered the 1608 church where Pocahontasmarried John Rolfe, the 2010 find ranked among the world’s most important. But that triumph hasn’t stopped the celebrated archaeologist — who turned 70 in March — from launching one of his most ambitious seasons.
In addition to searching for the west end of the church, Kelso and his staff — aided by the students of the Jamestown Rediscovery summer field school — will probe the remains of an unusually well-preserved “mud and stud” structure that may have been the fort’s 1608 guardhouse. They’ll begin exploring a previously untouched area near the 1907 Memorial Church and open up a critical part of the Confederate earthwork heaped on top of the forgotten fort in 1861.
They’ll also hunt for signs of an expansion that may have doubled the fort’s size — and convinced settlers to move their church to the middle of the newly enlarged outpost in 1617.
“Our original goal was to find the fort — then trace its evolution through time,” Kelso says.
“There’s so much left to discover here you could keep digging for years.”
( Joe Fudge, Daily Press / June 8, 2011 ) Jamestown Rediscovery's-David Givens, center, works with a crew inspecting some of the artifacts from the dig.
Scoured for hundreds of years by farmers’ plows — and churned up by Civil War shovels — all evidence of the 1.1-acre triangular fort might have disappeared had not so much of it been buried so deeply.
Removing all the soil stirred up after Jamestown was abandoned in the late 1600s has been a epic task for the archaeologists, especially since virtually every shovelful must be removed by hand — then carefully screened for the artifacts first noted by laborers during the construction of the Civil War earthwork.
In some cases the early-1600s layer was completely shaved away by later roads and utility trenches, Kelso says. That’s why the discovery of the church came as such a surprise when the field school students began reexamining a discouragingly low part of the site last summer.
“It’s a good thing the postholes were so big and so deep — or they wouldn’t have survived the plows,” Kelso says, pointing to a rectangular pattern of stains that — so far — perfectly matches William Strachey’s 1610 description of “a pretty chapel” 24 feet wide and 60 feet long.
“We just got one little taste of that posthole over here — and it was sunk at least 5 feet in the ground.”
Just as demanding is the intense detective work that follows, during which the archaeologists try to puzzle out the meaning of countless stains left by all the structural posts, fences, ditches, trash pits and other features cut into the soil over the past 400 years.
Yet — one after one — those clues have added up to a groundbreaking view of the early 17th-century landscape here, providing insights into the past that no one had imagined before.
“It’s very rare for buildings like this to survive well enough that you can actually read them,” Kelso says, looking down at the unexpectedly well-preserved footprint and floor of a building that may have been the fort’s guardhouse.
“The only reason we know it was here was because of the later chimney that fell down on it, protecting it from the plows. Hopefully, we can learn what it was built for.”
Kelso and his team are stepping outside the original triangle, too, investigating a Civil War “bombproof” structure as well as the remains of a palisade wall from a lost expansion.
Discovered 8 years ago, the line of posts disappeared just a few feet away after being shaved away by construction of a later road.
But more evidence might be found in an area that has never been explored.
“What’s so exciting here is that this part of the site is so unknown,” Kelso says. “It’s like starting all over again.”
