By J. PAUL HUDSON
Museum Curator, Colonial National Historical Park
"Hitherto they [historians] have depended too much upon manuscript
evidences... Perhaps the day is not distant when the social historian,
whether he is writing about the New England Puritans, or the
Pennsylvania Germans, or the rice planters of Southern Carolina, will
look underground, as well as in the archives, for his evidence."--DR.
T.J. WERTENBAKER
Archeological explorations at Jamestown, Va.--site of the first
successful English colony in the New World--have brought to light
thousands of colonial period artifacts which were used by the Virginia
settlers from 1607 until 1699.
A study of these ancient objects, which were buried under the soil at
Jamestown for many decades, reveal in many ways how the English
colonists lived on a small wilderness island over 300 years ago.
Artifacts unearthed include pottery and glassware, clay pipes, building
materials and handwrought hardware, tools and farm implements, weapons,
kitchen utensils and fireplace accessories, furniture hardware, lighting
devices, eating and drinking vessels, tableware, costume accessories and
footwear, medical equipment, horse gear, coins and weights, and many
items relating to household and town industries, transportation, trade,
and fishing.
These artifacts provide invaluable information concerning the everyday
life and manners of the first Virginia settlers. A brief description of
many of them is given on the following pages.
Excavated artifacts reveal that the Jamestown colonists built their
houses in the same style as those they knew in England, insofar as local
materials permitted. There were differences, however, for they were in a
land replete with vast forests and untapped natural resources close at
hand which they used to advantage. The Virginia known to the first
settlers was a carpenter's paradise, and consequently the early
buildings were the work of artisans in wood. The first rude shelters,
the split-wood fencing, the clapboard roof, puncheon floors, cupboards,
benches, stools, and wood plows are all examples of skilled working with
wood.