Posted on 06/08/2009 11:42:02 AM PDT by BGHater
Archaeologists have pulled a 400-year-old slate tablet from what they think was an original well at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
The slate is covered with faint inscriptions of local birds, flowers, a tree and caricatures of men, along with letters and numbers, according to Preservation Virginia, which jointly operates the dig site with the National Park Service. It was found at the center of James Fort, which was established in 1607 along the James River in eastern Virginia.
Research director William Kelso said the inscriptions were made with a slate pencil on the 4-inch-by-8-inch slate. The writings were wiped off, but they left grooves on the surface, he said.
"There were things written over things, written over things," Kelso said.
Researchers at NASA Langley put the slate through three-dimensional digital analysis so they could decipher its pictures and text. The imaging system normally is used to inspect materials for aerospace use.
An eagle and a heron appeared on the slate, along with three types of plants, which haven't yet been identified. A depiction of lions--the British armorial sign in the early 1600s--indicates that the writer could have been a government official, Kelso said.
The phrase "A minon of the finest sorte" also appears on the slate, and Kelso said "minon" may have been an alternate spelling of "minion," possibly referring to a cannon, slave or servant.
The artifact shows the high level of interest the English settlers had in the New World's flora and fauna, Kelso said. The archaeology team thinks that someone probably started the artwork and writing in England, and added to the slate over time after arriving in the new colony of Virginia.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
This computer-enhanced photo highlights simple drawings of birds and people that were etched on a slate tablet recently excavated by archaeologists in Jamestown, Virginia, America's first permanent English settlement.
The rare inscribed slate, believed to be 400 years old, was found in a well that archaeologists think may have been dug by Capt. John Smith, Jamestown's best known leader.
James ping.
Any Acorn lists of voters found?
Pioneers and turkeys?
Not exactly John White material:
http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/jamestown.html
Just found out in doing my geneology that I have a relative that was in Jamestown in the early settlement.
Wow! What a find!
Kinda surprised they found it in a well, though. The best arky finds by far come from one place - the crapper!
......Kinda surprised they found it in a well, though......
It was a very early excuse...... the well ate my homework.
They've already excavated the crapper at Jamestown. Found a couple of cell phones is all.
“deposited the tablet into what’s believed to be the “well of sweet water” ... records indicate that the water had gone bad by 1610 and might have contributed to numerous settlers’ deaths during what was known as the “starving time” of 1609-10.
The moral of this story is do not throw tablets into drinking wells.
This is neat. Great... grandpappy was at Jamestown so probably drank from the well. Obviously, he survived.
Lol!
Although truthfully, often if a well dried up or was abandoned it would be filled as much as possible with various debris.
So like this there are occasionally good finds.
But the best finds still come from the crapper, I can hear it now... “John, help, the baby fell in the crapper!!”
“Well, guess we’ll have another one!”
I dropped my homework down the well teacher, I swear I did.
Great....400 year old graffiti.
My two cents....Doubt the 400 year date...just because...
Might be the only way to date it is to date the stuff that was on top...
My problem observing this is that all the items are in the same direction...Sometimes you see what you want to see...
They had the contents from a well at the Busch Beer place...interesting...
Who was your relative? My ancestor was John Dods/Dodson who married Jane Eagle Plume, daughter of Chief Eagle Plume. Isn't it fortunate the Indians had English names or we'd have a hard time writing them, huh.
Or not. Could have been a kid doodling.
Why not a tablet related to sun god worship or blood sacrifice? Isn't that what the "experts" usually say when they find objects in other countries?
Very Cool Find.
Oh heck, I’d have to scroll back on my family tree. Give me a bit and I’ll let you know.
ROLF!!!!!!
Is there a genealogy thread here on FR? I’ve got back to 1680 in VA. Been to visit the area a few times. Pretty wild to see the names on mailboxes and storefronts that are in your family tree back several hundred years :)
Take this for what it's worth, as I'm not a geneologist by any stretch, but I do have a lot of experience working with the early colonial sources and I'm an amateur linguist who researches Algonquian and Iroquoian languages.
And I have to say that "Chief Eagle Plume" doesn't look to me like an authentic Powhatan or Iroquois name. Indians' names from the early 1600s come down to us mostly untranslated. They tended to be written right in the original language, although a few were translated in certain instances: e.g. Pocahontas = "little wanton", "Hot Ashes". I did a quick search on Google and "Chief Eagle Plume" mostly comes up in geneology websites, with (as far as I can tell) no supporting documentation from the early 1600s. It really sounds to me, unfortunately, like someone making up a fake Indian name or borrowing a later name from a westerly tribe.
I may be totally wrong about that, but just be careful and maybe do some more digging on it. There are too many hucksters and frauds when it comes to American Indians, sadly. :(
Not that I know of but I'll nominate you to be the Grand Poobah of the Order of the Secret Genealogical Society and Keeper of the Mystic Ping List. I know, seeing your family name still around the old haunts is kinda neat. It almost makes you go up to their doors and say, hey cuz, but you don't. Uh, ok, so I have done that!
LOL! I HAVE done that!
Giles County, VA. Looking for a cemetery (It was there that for the first time in my life I realized folks had cemeteries in their backyards!). Couldn't find it anywhere.
Rounded this one hill and I see a mailbox with a "cousin's" name on it. Grand Marquis in the driveway. I told my son that there was a good chance an "older" person lived there ;) and so we stood a good chance of not getting shot.
Knock on the door and this guy, had to be in his 90s answered. A short explanation of what we were doing and he pointed us to a house "'round back" (which was about 1/2 mile away) that had a cemetery.
It was the wrong one :-)
We eventually found it by knocking on the door of a lady that was recovering from a broken leg. Her daughter answered and her mom told her to let us in. We explained what we were doing and she got really excited. Called 5 or 6 neighbors looking for this cemetery for us. She eventually found the right one. We thanked her profusely and she told us she was happy to as it was the first good distraction she had had in weeks from her broken leg!
Guess I should have added a (/s) in my post. No, of course “Jane” isn’t Iroquoian, that was a joke. Some thirty years ago, the Jamestown Park folks let us in to their records so we were able to fill in a lot of info. Yes, everyone claims they’re related to the chief. He seems to be a catch all but then he might have had several daughters and traded for them, who knows. By the next generation they were marrying English settlers.
Ah LOL!!!! Sorry I didn’t catch the sarc....I’ve heard stories like that too many times. :)
The “Jane” first name is actually more believable than the “Eagle Plume” last name. Here’s a few native Iroquois names from the mid-1600s: Daniel Garakontie, Marie Tsaouente, Catherine Gandeaktewa. Christian first name, native name used as a last name.
Anyway, check this out. This seems to be the person promoting him *rolling eyes*:
http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.dodson/724.749.750.751.752.796.802.804.815.828.3.3.2.2.1/mb.ashx
Oh my, were you hiding in our trunk? Exact same thing. Must be the norm for them to have total strangers asking about the old days. At one ramshackle place they pointed us to the old cemetery which we found down past the barns but we couldn’t find the “new” (mid 1800s) one up the hill. The guy loaded us in the truck and drove us up there. Yep, there were all the relatives!
Another time we were driving through a town and saw a business with our unusual last name so we went in. The owner claimed there were two lines of that name but they weren’t related and he was from the not related one - uh, I beg to differ since he was the spittin’ image of my grandfather. My grandfather’s family had left that town during the Civil War so those were some mighty dominant genes.
Once Mr. G and I were roaming around a cemetery and came across one of those old graves with a broken slab over the top. He read the inscription stating this was the guy’s second burial so he called me over to ask if that’s what it really meant. He had a good laugh about the slab keeping the guy in when suddenly, no lie, there was a horrible noise that came from under the slab. Mr. G jumped and ran to the car. He swears he wasn’t scared but he’s never gone out with me again.
That's from your link. O-M-G, hahahahahaha!!! That's hilarious! Sad, but hilarious. I haven't seen all that. Sorry, but the spirits don't need my $10, lol. I haven't done any serious work on the family for years and all that hoopla just reinforces my stance on never getting an account there. The internet can be a fine tool but most times you need get in your car and drive to where the original record is and verify it with your own two eyes. My goal was to get my side back across the pond and that's been accomplished except for a couple dead ends. If I win the lottery or some long lost aunt leaves me enough to travel on, I might start again. Thanks for the laugh!
I don’t know if there is a genealogy thread here or not. I would love to join one if there is!
I have gone back to the 1600’s for America, but then gone back to England and Scotland. Apparently I am descended from Mary Queen of Scots aunt through her granddaughter who was a Lady came to America with her Lord. Then the Revolutionary war came and the family lost their titles. Moved down south and in the civil war, lost their money (confederate money was worthless).
So there ya go. Cotton pickers descended from royalty. Yay America! LOL!
“So there ya go. Cotton pickers descended from royalty. Yay America! LOL!”
Sounds like my family! I’d like to participate in a genealogy thread.
Just saw on ancestry.com that the DNA testing is now $79. I’m a tad paranoid to do that, but it would be interesting to see back to where I came from back in the Stone Age, LOL.
“Just saw on ancestry.com that the DNA testing is now $79. “
Interesting, I’ve been thinking of doing that as well.
Yeah, folks threw all sorts of thing down the hole. I have friends who seek out old crappers and dig them out looking (primarily) for old bottles. Not exactly archeology, but the right bottles are worth a lot of money. It's not easy work, though, and even after 200 years, the crap can still be pretty nasty.
Hey, check out a sample of the pages you get. You also get to link up with relatives that are on ancestry.com that may be in Russia or France or wherever. This look way cool for $79 to $149! As a female, I have to pay more because they have to do two lineage lines on me. You probably would too or you could send in your father’s DNA, but then you wouldn’t have your mothers. Anyway, I’m seriously thinking about saving up for this.
Here is the link to the PDF file that is an example of what you get on top of the ability to contact relatives you didn’t know you had.
http://dna.ancestry.com/DNAStatic//pdf/DNASample.pdf
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Thanks BGHater. A rare ping to a Colonial America topic. |
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Don’t show it to Obama. He’ll say it looks like him.
I live in a 200+ year old house. I still haven’t found the original privy (probably under that huge apple tree in the yard!)
No no no - I said if you want to *get well* take *two* tablets and call me in the morning...
According to family tradition, and the LDS records, we’re descended from the union of John Smith and Pocahontas, which produced a son, Peregrin. Can’t prove it by the official records, since Smith would have been in BIG trouble if the truth were known back in England. But the story makes a lot of sense, especially in light of their well-known relationship at Jamestown, and their later well-documented encounter when Pocahontas visited England just before her death.
The middle name “Powhatan” has been used down through the generations many times.
I’ve also got several other forebears who are quite provable as early Jamestown settlers. The family eventually left the Virginia Tidewater and moved into Kentucky with Boone, and then moved on into Missouri when Jefferson opened up the Louisiana Purchase. From there they spread out into Iowa, Nebraska, and one, Joel Estes, went west and discovered the area that became known as Estes Park, CO.
Patience led pioneer Jesse Hiatt to a tasty reward. He is credited with the discovery of the Delicious apple, one of the world's finest.
Hiatt, a devout Quaker, was raised in Randolph County, Pa., and farmed for his parents. After their deaths, he moved to Iowa in 1856 to be near a brother and settled in Madison County. He and his wife, Rebecca Jane, built a two-room log cabin and raised a family of 10 children.
Hiatt was proud of the orchard he planted on his farm in the 1860s, and in 1872 planted apple seedlings in two rows. A mutation grew between the rows, and he chopped it down, only to have it grow back the second year. Again he chopped it down. The third year, when the sprout grew back, he said: "If thee must grow, thee may."
The farmer nurtured the tree for 10 years before it produced a single apple. Hiatt, who had already developed the Hiatt Sweet and Hiatt Black apples, loved its aroma, texture and red-and-yellow streaks. He loved the taste even more, telling his wife that "this is the best-tasting apple in the whole world."
He named it the Hawkeye in honor of his adopted state and began another 10 years of promoting his discovery. Clarence Stark of the Stark Bros. Nursery of Louisiana, Mo., listened, choosing the apple as best in the nation from entries submitted for a contest. The nursery acquired the marketing rights to the apple in 1893 and renamed it the Delicious. The nursery believed that the aberrant apple tree had been an accidental cross of Bellflower and Winesap seeds. The result was a tree that produced strong branches and abundant crops.
The original tree died in the early 1940s because of an early frost, but sprouts grew near the original stump. In 1922, a marker was placed in Winterset City Park to honor Hiatt.
“Apparently I am descended from Mary Queen of Scots”
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My husband’s family has a story of one of his Scottish ancestors who stood on a bridge and spat on Mary Queen of Scots as she passed under. He was hanged. The family remains proudly Protestant to this day. (My husband, however, converted to Catholicism some years before I met him. No grudge against Mary Queen of Scots on his part, I guess.)
They were actually pretty close to the houses....Go 100 feet and you’ve probably gone to far. If you know someone who is into “witching”...make a fun day of it.
Far enough away so you can’t smell them in the summer, and close enough so you don’t freeze your butt off getting there in the winter!
I’ve been on all the privy digging websites. Even bought one of those six foot spring rods with the probe on the end. I know where the most recent one is (last used in the 60’s, I believe), but still have to find the first one. A two hundred year old house would have several privy pits. I still think it’s under the apple tree! It’s in about the right spot - almost straight down from where the back door used to be. LOL! Who knows what treasures lie in wait there! ;-)
Jamestown is a fascinating historical site. Where I lived in Williamsburg was just a 15-minute bike ride there. For those who have an interest in America’s early history, Virginia is a great place to live.
Hello
My grandmother told me I was related to the John Dodd who married Jane Chief Eagle Plume’s daughter. Her mother was Agnes Elizabeth Dodd. Her grandmother was Paulina and her grandfather Samuel Dodd. She was born in Natural Bridge Station Virginia. Her father’s side is full blooded Cherokee. I would love to hear more from you ... I do not know anything further about her Dodd line and am having difficulty finding info. If you have a family tree, would you share it.
Welcome to FR. I see you signed up probably from a search for Dodd but please stay and visit here. It’s fun but addicting!
Sorry, I haven’t really worked on the family stuff for years and it’s all packed away but there’s a dozen lineages of them on line. A word of advice, don’t believe anything on line until you get your hands on the original records and verify it yourself. People lie and make up junk and others come along and take it for the truth. The LDS branch libraries are as unreliable as the internet since there’s not checks and balances but use them as hints of where to start. The best place, without access to original documents, is the DAR books which most any large library will have.
I’d also question how a full blood Cherokee would come from English ancestry or be in that part of the country at the time.
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