The September 2006 issue of The American Surveyor included a report on the Jamestown Discovery project. The archaeological site of Jamestown in what is now Virginia in the American southeast is a National Historic Monument that represents the ruins of a 400-year-old British colony, the first permanent British settlement in the Americas. Established in 1607 by an English business called the Virginia Company and led by Captain John Smith, the colony suffered through a very difficult period in its early years, bailed out by trade with the Powhatan Indians in the neighborhood. The legend of Pocahontas and John Smith derived from the early days of the colony. Eventually, Jamestown did prosper, becoming Virginia's capital until 1698 when it burned to the ground and was abandoned.
Extensive archaeological investigations have been conducted at Jamestown since the early 1990s, in anticipation of the 400th anniversary of its founding. Building foundations have been identified, as has a well dated to the early days of the British occupation. Jointly owned by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) and the National Park Service, the site (with a museum and other open air exhibits) is open to the public for visit year round.
The American Surveyor report Modern Technology Helps Reveal Way of Life in America's First Settlement (although it wasn't America's first settlement by a long shot, since people have been on the continent some 15,000 years or so) provides an interesting, detailed look at how Jamestown is using the modern methods of mapping including electronic surveying equipment, geographic information systems (GIS), and mapping software.
Extensive archaeological investigations have been conducted at Jamestown since the early 1990s, in anticipation of the 400th anniversary of its founding. Building foundations have been identified, as has a well dated to the early days of the British occupation. Jointly owned by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) and the National Park Service, the site (with a museum and other open air exhibits) is open to the public for visit year round.
The American Surveyor report Modern Technology Helps Reveal Way of Life in America's First Settlement (although it wasn't America's first settlement by a long shot, since people have been on the continent some 15,000 years or so) provides an interesting, detailed look at how Jamestown is using the modern methods of mapping including electronic surveying equipment, geographic information systems (GIS), and mapping software.
- Modern Technology Helps Reveal Way of Life in America's First Settlement by Cori Keeton Pope in American Surveyor
- Jamestown, a brief description of the site and why the site is of interest to archaeologists and historians
- Jamestown, the official webpage of APVA has news and information on the ongoing excavations
- Virtual Jamestown, includes gobs of information, including original documents of the colonists, maps and photographs of artifacts
- GIS and Spatial Analysis
- Maps and Mapping
Comments
A new episode of “Secrets of the Dead” about Jamestown will begin airing next week on PBS.
Secrets of the Dead – “Death at Jamestown”
Caption:
DEATH AT JAMESTOWN
The settlers at Jamestown, the first British colony in the New World, were looking for wealth and adventure. But within six months, 80 of the original 100 were dead. Were they killed by disease, starvation, warfare or, as a new theory suggests, poison and a sinister plot to sabotage the colony?
Credit:
Thirteen/WNET New York
I thought it seemed possible that the Jamestown settlers were killed by arsenic poisoning. But I thought it was a preposterous piece of religious bigotry to charge Catholics with deliberatately attempting to destroy the Protestant colony. And I thought the historical evidence used to support that claim was probably manufactured. My conclusion: Is that good doctor with the Ku Klux Klan?
The poison could just as easily have been distributed throughout the ship’s food supply by contaminated rats. Supplies from the ship were, no doubt, left behind for the colonists.