1995 Interim Report Beverly Straube Nicholas Luccketti APVA Jamestown Rediscovery November 1996 Graphics and maps by Jamie E. May Design and production by Elliott Jordan © 1996 by The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this report or portions thereof in any form. Contents INTRODUCTION ................................. 5 1995 Excavations ............................... 6 Research Design ............................................................... 6 Results.............................................................................. 8 Pit I (JR1-4) ....................................................................... 8 Palisade Slot Trench (JR60-65) and Buttress Postholes (JR66) ................................................ 10 Pit II (JR4,10,11,12) ......................................................... 12 Structure I (JR50)............................................................. 13 Post-Fort Ditches............................................................. 15 Native American Presence .............................................. 16 ARTIFACTS ....................................... 18 Beads ............................................................................. 18 European Ceramics ......................................................... 20 Pipes .............................................................................. 26 Coins .............................................................................. 28 Jettons ............................................................................ 28 Book Furniture ................................................................ 29 Firearms ......................................................................... 30 Edged Weaponry............................................................ 35 Armor ........................................................................... 39 Significant Individual Artifacts ......................................... 41 DISCUSSION .................................... 46 James Fort and the Fourth Ridge...................................... 46 Copper Manufacture ....................................................... 46 “Tryal of Glasse” ............................................................. 49 English-Paspahegh Interactions ....................................... 51 Notes ............................................... 53 Bibliography ..................................... 55 INTRODUCTION Background weeks. Visiting Senior Archaeologists David K. Hazzard, Alain C. Outlaw, Eric C. Klingelhofer, The year 1995 was the second year of the and Carter L. Hudgins rotated through the Sum- APVA’s Jamestown Rediscovery, an archaeological mer Institute to provide additional supervision of program devoted to discovering and understand- the students. Also contributing to the fieldwork ing the early seventeenth-century settlement on was an eight-week history class from the College of the APVA’s 22 1/2 acres on Jamestown Island. The William and Mary which consisted of five Ameri- 1995 field report is the second annual report on can History or American Studies doctoral students the archaeological work. It covers work conducted with several years of archaeological experience on from March through December 1995 that 1) con- Virginia colonial sites. Professional archaeologists tinued the investigation of features unearthed in and Jamestown Rediscovery Advisory Board mem- 1994 and, 2) expanded the original excavation area bers Alaric Faulkner and Martha Williams each in two directions. volunteered a week of their time on the excavation, The 1994 field season, which lasted from while interns Mike Westfall, Pat Valko, Joanne April through December, investigated an area ap- Robbins, Jane Caputo, and Danny Schmidt made proximately 40’ square between the Jamestown substantial contributions both in the field and in Church and the James River. The excavation un- the laboratory. covered a 23’-long section of a slot trench that Several other scholars generously assisted contained postmolds set side-by-side, a 12’ by 9’ Jamestown Rediscovery in 1995. The artifact collec- pit, three overlapping ditches that postdate the slot tion was studied by Museum of London archaeolo- trench and pit, and about a dozen postmolds and/ gist Geoff Egan, who also worked in the field. E. or postholes. The slot trench is believed to be a Randolph Turner, a prehistoric archaeologist with palisade for one of the first forts constructed at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Jamestown. Partial excavation of the large pit conducted a basic analysis of the Native American yielded a very large quantity of artifacts that con- ceramic types recovered during the current project. tained evidence of glassmaking, the manufacture The site, since it is a tightly dated and short-lived of copper ornaments that probably were used in context, represents a time capsule for the material trade with the Indians, and many military-related culture of protohistoric and early contact periods. objects, including a complete cabasset helmet, nu- As always, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation ar- merous pieces of armor, matchlocks, gun rests, and chitectural historians Willie Graham and Cary edged weapons. The ceramics, dated coins, cloth Carson cheerfully reviewed the architectural evi- seals, jettons, and other artifacts from the site sug- dence and offered suggestions on the nature of gest that it was occupied during the first few years, structures uncovered by Jamestown Rediscovery. of English settlement at Jamestown Island. Drs. Jerre Johnson and Stephen Clement of the ge- ology department at the College of William and Mary continued to freely dispense their wisdom, Acknowledgments identifying geological specimens recovered from the excavation. Also, Fraser D. Neiman, Director The Jamestown Rediscovery staff was in- of Archaeology at Monticello, was always willing creased in 1995 by the addition of two more full- to provide advice on plowzone artifact and soil time field archaeologists, Eric Deetz and Patricia chemical analyses. Sternheimer. The excavations were supplemented Several special scientific studies of Pit I were by an APVA Summer Institute in Historical Ar- conducted during 1995, including parasitological chaeology which comprised ten teachers for 6 analysis by Leslie H. Driscoll, seed analysis by Dr. Steven Mrozowski, pollen analysis by Dr. Gerald Tents to cover the site were obtained Kelso, and microstratigraphic analysis by Doug through a matching grant from the Marietta Curry. Dr. Stuart Fleming of the University of McNeill Morgan and Samuel Tate Morgan, Jr., Pennsylvania Museum performed a metallurgical Foundation of Richmond. Funding for the 1995 analysis of several copper objects recovered from field season was provided by the APVA, the Vir- the excavation. NASA and Bob Berry continued ginia General Assembly, and the National Endow- their significant donations of time and use of ment for the Humanities. The Summer Institute equipment for radiography of iron artifacts. was made possible by a grant from the Jessie Ball Patricia Sternheimer also conducted preliminary DuPont Fund. sorting and identification of the faunal remains. Aerial view of the Jamestown site at the end of the 1995 season. Copyright David M. Doody 1995 Excavations slot trench stopped because a non-palisade struc- Research Design ture such as a watchtower or blockhouse once stood at this point, or the slot trench did not sur- A composite archaeological site plan incor- vive here due to a drop in grade. Consequently, the porating the features discovered in 1994 by excavation area was expanded to the east in order Jamestown Rediscovery and a narrow ditch and four to relocate the slot trench and to ascertain what postholes found in 1949 by J.C. Harrington im- caused the gap. Additionally, a sample of the slot mediately west of the project area revealed that the trench was excavated in 1995. 1994 slot trench corresponded precisely with A total of 24 ten-foot squares and 5 five-by- Harrington’s narrow ditch. Also, Harrington re- ten-foot squares were excavated during the 1995 corded three large postholes at 9 foot intervals at a field season. A twentieth-century sand and gravel break in the slot trench, suggesting the presence of road through the site was removed with a Bobcat a structure, possibly associated with the palisade. grader, all the plowzone was shoveled off and Accordingly, the 1995 field season expanded the screened; and all feature excavation was hand original excavation to the west and northwest to troweled. Several special scientific studies were completely expose the entire structure represented conducted in 1995 of the fill in Pit I, including by Harrington’s postholes and to determine why pollen analysis (both column and spot), column the palisade slot trench apparently stopped or seed analysis, parasite analysis, and microstrati– ended at this point. graphic analysis. When it became clear that the slot trench The 1995 field season completed the excava- was destroyed to the west, probably by construc- tion of features uncovered in 1994, namely Pit I, tion of either the seawall and/or the Confederate Pit II, the three ditches, and excavated sections of Fort, the project shifted its focus to the east of the the palisade slot trench. The extension of the exca- original excavation area. The palisade slot trench vation to the west and northwest uncovered an also was not evident east of the later ditch com- earthfast