In the summer of 1934 a group of archeologists set to work to explore the site of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown Island, Va. For the next 22 years the National Park Service strove—with time out for wars and intervals between financial allotments—to wrest from the soil of Jamestown the physical evidence of 17th-century life. The job is not yet complete. Only 24 out of 60 acres estimated to comprise “James Citty” have been explored; yet a significant amount of information has been revealed by trowel and whiskbroom and careful recording.

By 1956 a total of 140 structures—brick houses, frame houses with brick footings, outbuildings, workshops, wells, kilns, and even an ice storage pit—had been recorded. To help unravel the mystery of landholdings (sometimes marked by ditches), 96 ditches of all kinds were located, and hundreds of miscellaneous features from post holes to brick walls were uncovered. Refuse pits were explored meticulously, since before the dawn of history man has left his story in the objects he discarded.

When archeology at Jamestown is mentioned, the question is often asked, why was it necessary to treat so famous a historic site as an archeological problem at all? Isn’t the story finished with the accounts of John Smith’s adventures, the romance of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, the “starving time,” the Indian massacre of 1622, Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion against Governor Berkeley, and the establishment of the first legislative assembly?

The archeologist’s answer is that the real drama of daily life of the settlers—the life they knew 24 hours a day—is locked in the unwritten history beneath humus and tangled vegetation of the island. Here a brass thimble from the ruins of a cottage still retains a pellet of paper to keep it on a tiny finger that wore it 300 years ago. A bent halberd in an abandoned well, a discarded sword, and a piece of armor tell again the passing of terror of the unknown, after the Indians retreated forever into the distant hills and forests. Rust-eaten axes, wedges, mattocks, and saws recall the struggle to clear a wilderness. The simple essentials of life in the first desperate years have largely vanished with traces of the first fort and its frame buildings. But in later houses the evidence of Venetian glass, Dutch and English delftware, pewter, and silver eating utensils, and other comforts and little luxuries tell of new-found security and the beginning of wealth. In all, a half-million individual artifacts at the Jamestown museum represent the largest collection from any 17th-century colonial site in North America.

But archeologists have found more than objects at Jamestown. They sought to unravel the mystery of that part of the first settlement which disappeared beneath the eroding current of the James River during the past 300 years. It has always been known that the island in the 17th century was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus extending to Glasshouse Point, where a glassmaking venture took place in 1608. Over this isthmus the “Greate Road” ran, and its traces have been discovered on the island as far as the brick church tower. As the isthmus disappeared at the close of the 17th century, the river continued to erode the island headward and build it up at its downstream end, so that the western and southern shores where the first settlement had been built, were partly destroyed. Thus, the first fort site of 1607, of which no trace has been found on land, is thought to have been eaten away, together with the old powder magazine and much early 17th-century property fronting on the river.

In a series of extensive tests for any possible trace of the 1607 fort still remaining on land, several incidental discoveries of importance were made. One was an Indian occupation site beneath a layer of early 17th-century humus, which, in turn, was covered by the earthen rampart of a Confederate fort of 1861. This location is marked today by a permanent “in-place” exhibit on the shore near the old church tower. Here, in a cut-away earth section revealing soil zones from the present to the undisturbed clay, evidence of 350 years of history fades away into prehistory.

Within the enclosure of this same Confederate fort was found a miraculously preserved pocket of 17th-century debris marking the site of the earliest known armorer’s forge in British America.

Just beyond, upriver, lie ruins of the Ludwell House and the Third and Fourth Statehouses. In 1900-01, Col. Samuel H. Yonge, a U.S. Army Engineer and a keen student of Jamestown history, uncovered and capped these foundations after building the original seawall. A strange discovery was made here in 1955 while the foundations were being examined by archeologists for measured drawings. Tests showed that no less than 70 human burials lay beneath the statehouse walls, and an estimated 200 more remain undisturbed beneath the remaining structures or have been lost in the James River. Here may be the earliest cemetery yet revealed at Jamestown—one so old that it was forgotten by the 1660’s when the Third Statehouse was erected. It is, indeed, quite possible that these burials, some hastily interred without coffins, could date from the “starving time” of 1609-10, when the settlers strove to dispose of their dead without disclosing their desperate condition to the Indians.

The first church service at Jamestown was held under a piece of sailcloth in May 1607. The first frame church, constructed within the palisades, burned with the entire first fort in January 1608, and was eventually replaced by another frame structure after the fort was rebuilt. The exact date of the first church to stand on a brick foundation is uncertain, possibly 1639. Brick foundation traces, uncovered in 1901 by John Tyler, Jr., a civil engineer who volunteered his services for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, lie behind the free-standing brick church tower which remains the only standing ruin today. The modern brick structure and roof enclose and protect the footing evidence of the walls of two separate churches and a tile chancel flooring. Indication of fire among these foundations was noted by Tyler.

Despite official urgings that they build substantial town houses on Jamestown Island, the first successful planters often preferred to build on their holdings away from the capitol, once the Indian menace had passed. Only 2 houses at Jamestown, designed for single occupancy, have over 900 square feet of foundation area.

One was either a stately residence or a public building (area 1,350 square feet) located near Pitch and Tar Swamp, just east of the Jamestown Visitor Center. Archeological evidence indicates that this structure was first completed before the middle of the 17th century. It was later reconstructed and enlarged about the beginning of the last quarter, possibly during Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. Unmistakably, it burned.

The second structure was a smaller (1,200 square feet), but imposing, house located near the present shoreline, considerably downriver. One of the features of this second mansion was a basement in the center of which was sunk a square, brick-lined recess, 3.3 feet on a side and 2.7 feet deep. Among the many wine bottle fragments in this recess were 3 bottle seals—1 with “WW” and 2 with “FN” stamped on them. Whether or not this mansion can be associated with Sir Francis Nicholson, the last governor resident at Jamestown (who moved the capital to Williamsburg), we do not know. Artifacts found in the refuse indicate this house was dismantled, not burned, shortly before or after the turn of the 17th century. The mystery of the little brick-lined recess is not entirely solved, but it is probable that here was a primitive cooler, deep below the house, in which perishable foods or wines were stored.

Although row houses—a continuous row of joined family residences on unit foundations—were a common city feature in 17th-century England, apparently they did not become popular at Jamestown. But the brick foundation of one true multiple-family unit has been uncovered, and two others approach this category, thus providing the true precedent for the row houses which came to characterize miles of Baltimore and Philadelphia streets, and are a familiar pattern of some modern duplex apartment units.

This Jamestown row house is probably the most impressive foundation on the island. It is 16 feet long and 20 feet wide (inside measurement), situated east of the Tercentenary Monument, facing south, well back from the river and “the back streete.” A cellar and a great fireplace terminate the east end, and 9 other fireplaces are evident in 4 main divisions, which may have housed one family or more in each division. Since artifact evidence relates it to the last quarter of the 17th century, and possibly the beginning of the 18th, there would seem little possibility of the row house having served as a public building or a tavern. There is some evidence that at least part of the structure burned.

These were once supposed to have been very common at Jamestown, but are represented by only 12 foundations, not all of which have been completely excavated. Like the other excavated structures, if these houses can be related to the ownership of the land tracts on which they once stood, we may someday know more of their possible identity.

Partial or even whole brick footings do not always indicate brick houses at Jamestown. Some 30 structures have been recorded which had brick footings or isolated brick fireplace foundations, the appearance of which suggests frame houses. These may be briefly classified as follows:

• Brick, or brick-and-cobble, wall-footings with central chimney bases of brick—2.
• Brick footing and outside chimney—3.
• Brick footing only—10.
• Brick chimney base alone remaining—12.
• Stone footing only—1.
• Cellar only, presumed to belong to frame or unfinished house, or to have had all bricks salvaged—1.
• Burned earth floor area only remaining, presumed to mark a frame house—1.

Some of the structures encountered in the first explorations remain to be more fully excavated and recorded. Structures in this category total 23.

Because of the inadequacy of Jamestown remains and records, it is difficult to determine the purposes for which the various outbuildings were used. Doubtless, many outbuildings did exist for various purposes, and probably most of them were not substantial enough to leave a trace. Two clearly isolated, small structures properly called outbuildings (discovered in 1955) are all that will be cited here. The first is the large double-chimney foundation just beyond the southwest corner of the mansion east of the museum. Undoubtedly this belonged to a detached kitchen. The second is a small, but thick-walled, rectangular structure of brick which may have been a food storehouse or even a powder magazine.

Most of the early industries at Jamestown were undoubtedly housed in perishable wooden structures that have left the least evident traces, such as frame sheds for forges and wine presses, carpenters’ shops, and buildings used by various artisans and craftsmen. So far, only two industrial structures are clearly recognizable (aside from kilns), although their precise use is not certain.

One of these, on the edge of Pitch and Tar Swamp, was a nearly square, tile-floored workshop with a rough but substantial brick foundation supporting the framework of the walls. On the floor were 3 fireboxes, 2 of which were associated with a large chimney area. What was fabricated here has not yet been determined, although ceramic firing, brewing, distilling, and even ironworking, have been suggested. Proximity of pottery and lime-burning kilns, and a small pit where iron may have been smelted, may be significant.

A second, very fragmentary brick foundation close to the present riverbank suggests a shop rather than a house, but lacks firebox evidence or other identifying features. It may be 18th- rather than 17th-century.

It is difficult to assign a use for certain areas which have been paved apparently with brick rubble, or, in more evident cases, by flatlaid bricks. Four such paved areas have been discovered.

Three brick drains, buried beneath the humus line, are identified with 17th-century houses.

So far unique on Jamestown Island is a circular unlined pit, 14 feet in top diameter, excavated 7 feet into a sandy substratum, and corresponding in general character to known 17th-and 18th-century ice pits in England. This pit which lies 250 feet east of the Visitor Center may have served a spacious house which once stood nearby. It may be assumed that the missing surface structure was circular, probably of brick, had a small door, and was roofed over with thatch or sod for insulation.

Both brick and lime kilns are present in the “James Citty” area, each type being represented by four examples. The oldest of four brick kilns so far discovered on the island is a small rectangular pit near Orchard Run, excavated to a floor depth of 4 feet, which has been dated between 1607 and 1625 by associated cultural objects. This small pit, without structural brick, was a brick-making “clamp,” consisting of unfired brick built up over two firing chambers. There is good evidence that a pottery kiln was situated 30 feet west of the “industrial area.”

Also in the “industrial area” near Pitch and Tar Swamp, there is a circular pit in which lime, bog iron, and charcoal suggest the manufacture of iron. The previously mentioned pit within the area of the Confederate Fort yielded sword parts, gun parts, bar iron, and small tools, indicating a forge site, perhaps an armorer’s forge.

At Jamestown, wells are conspicuous features near many house locations. Those that have been found may be summarized as follows: wood lined—1; circular, brick cased—10; circular, uncased with wooden barrel at bottom—6; circular, uncased, incompletely excavated—4.

Wells are invariably found filled with earth mixed with trash, mainly food animal bones. A well, located immediately north of the row house, had a human left leg and left half of the pelvis buried in the fill at a depth of 4 feet.

The most significant feature determining landholdings are the ditches of the Jamestown area. During the 1954-56 explorations 63 ditches were added to the 33 previously discovered, thus increasing the opportunity to delineate property lines, many of which used to be bounded by such ditches.