http://www.apva.org/jr.html
Posted on 04/13/2005 1:36:54 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Nearly 10 years after leading the pioneering dig that unearthed the lost remains of Jamestown, archaeologist William M. Kelso was named 2005 Virginian of the Year by the VPA.
With the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement just two years away, the former Williamsburg high school history teacher, who lives on the island, says the full impact of the celebrated excavation has yet to be felt.
Q: You first came to Jamestown Island at 21, intent on standing on the exact spot where America began. You returned repeatedly over the next three decades. What's behind this lifelong interest?
A:
I grew up in Ohio, but it might as well have been Massachusetts. Everything I learned in school about the beginning of this country was about the Pilgrims. Jamestown was just a footnote. And I thought, if Jamestown was the place where the first settlers came, where's the rest of the story?
When I came here for graduate school at William and Mary in 1963, the first thing I did was make a trip to Jamestown. I wanted to see the exact spot where it all happened. But when I asked a Park Service ranger about the (James) fort, he pointed to a tree that used to be way out in the river and said that's where it was. I didn't want to believe it. I asked him about this cross-section of soil layers and artifacts in the old Confederate fort that used to be exposed for visitors to look at. I said, 'What about this dark layer here?' And he said, 'Who knows?' It turned out that was the plow zone we dug through to find John Smith's fort.
Q: How come so many people failed to recognize the fort if it was that close to the surface?
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
IIRC, when I went to the Jamestown site the tour guide claimed that the area of the original settlement was now underwater. That always seemed strange to me.
A: Everything really came together at Kingsmill. That's where we really got started on understanding these early sites. We learned to recognize what I call the "signs of the wooden ages."
Everything back then was built of wood - and it turned into dirt pretty quickly. But there are contrasts in the dirt, and we learned to shave it down so those contrasts could be seen and then analyzed for patterns. Then we began to recognize the differences between things like fence posts, postholes and palisade walls. That turned out to be the key at Jamestown - being able to tell the difference between a wooden palisade trench and a garden trench. And by the time we got to Harbour View, it was obvious that we had gone back as far as we could without finding the beginning. The only place to find that was at Jamestown.
Q: What made you start digging? A: The fort was the icon, the Holy Grail.
You can't make this stuff up.
May 14th, now there's an interesting date in history.
Ezekiel 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick* of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick* of Judah, and make them one stick*, and they shall be one in mine hand.
Ezekiel 37:20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.
Ezekiel 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
* 06086 `ets {ates}
from 06095; TWOT - 1670a; n m
AV - tree 162, wood 107, timber 23, stick 14, gallows 8, staff 4,
stock 4, carpenter + 02796 2, branches 1, helve 1, planks 1,
stalks 1; 328
1) tree, wood, timber, stock, plank, stalk, stick, gallows
1a) tree, trees
1b) wood, pieces of wood, gallows, firewood, cedar-wood, woody flax
Q: Nearly 10 years later, you're still excited by the ongoing excavation. What are you looking for?
A: I'm still interested in America's beginning. I still want to find the start. The greatest excitement comes from finding something that was lost - that was a hopeless case - and there are still a lot more beginnings here to find.
"Signs of the wooden ages" indeed... where else, but Jamestown.
ping
(love these history lessons)
..when I went to the Jamestown site the tour guide claimed that the area of the original settlement was now underwater.
Eze 12:2 Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they [are] a rebellious house.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
I have visited the historic triangle several times and taken my kids to see the history. IMHO it's much more interesting than a gray rock.
I am striving mightily to prove some genetic connection to the earliest settlers at Jamestown so I can take part in the celebration, but fear I am going to have to settle for St. Mary/Port Tobacco, MD (1634). Let's see, in 2034 I'll only be 72, I should be able to make that.
Oh yea! And the rock ain't the "real" Plymouth Rock either!
These days, 72 isn't really all that old.
On Lucianne.com today there was a story about a new find at Jamestown. An old piece of armor (quilted canvas with pieces of metal attached) called a jacks jerkin. First such complete piece of armor found.
My aunt and uncle live very close to Williamsburg. Very pretty area of the country. My uncle got a kick out of me being to identify some of the pieces of pottery and glass he had picked up on his property (usually after a nice rainfall bubbles things up to the surface).
I plan to go back and poke around all the historic sites there.
I could identify something as being pottery or glass – but no way could I type or date it. That’s an area of study that has been on my list of “Things to Learn” for a long time.
Well I used to do it for a living, so it was pretty easy for me. He did have a couple interesting glass bottle fragments, but most of it was pretty mundane salt-glazed stone ware.
http://www.apva.org/jr.html
rivers do have a way of wandering around. When I was digging a fort site in Ohio, I found that the river had moved over to the west and parts of the fort are now on both sides of the river.
I found Williamsburg powerfully boring honestly.
As for people from MA, most do indeed seem to think Plymouth came first. Public education at work I guess...
Way back when I was a kid we had a lot of old stoneware in the basement. Eared jugs and large beaker shaped crocks with lids – gray with reddish-brown trim. When the family moved away for a few years and rented the house out everything disappeared. It was one of the first homes in Northwest Pennsylvania, built in the very early 19th Century. As well as the stoneware the basement had butter churns, old farm implements and house wares. A regular museum – and everything was taken. When we moved back I was old enough to appreciate it and was hoping to learn something about it.
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