Jamestown Dumpster Diving
If you are a colonist at the turn of the 17th century, and are living in a brand new settlement, what do you do with a well whose water has turned horribly bitter? You use it for a trash dumpster, of course.
Archaeologists from APVA Preservation Virginia have been uncovering some really cool artifacts from the old dump site, including an intact broadsword, chess pieces and some discarded Indian trinkets.
Archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson (left) and Luke Pecoraro carefully begin excavating a potential cache of arms and armor that so far includes a broad sword with a basket hilt (sword part that protects the hand) and blade, tasset lames (armor that protects the thigh) and a rapier hilt, discovered recently at Historic Jamestowne inside the 1607 James Fort site in what may be an early well.
Curator Michael Lavin displays recent finds from a pit that may be an early well inside the 1607 James Fort site at Historic Jamestowne including: a Virginia Indian bone needle, ivory chess pieces, a 1613 English farthing, Virginia Indian shell beads, glass trade beads and copper baubles — used to decorate hair and clothing.
From the Daily Press here:
Archaeologists working at the site of historic James Fort have unearthed the first pieces of what appears to be a large cache of armor and arms buried in an early 17th-century well.
The artifacts include numerous tassets – small pieces of armor used to protect the wearer’s thighs – as well as a rapier hilt, an iron pole and a nearly complete broadsword with an intact basket hilt.
Excavated by archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson and Luke Pecoraro, the artifacts were found in a 19-by-19-foot refuse pit about 3 feet below the original 17th-century ground level.
Additional evidence comes from the other artifacts the pit has yielded so far, including glass trade beads, chess pieces and pottery shards that date to the earliest years of the fort.
Archaeologists also have found numerous early Virginia Indian artifacts, including a bone needle, an assortment of finished and unfinished shell beads, and a grinding stone.
Do you think the early colonists threw away the shell beads because they thought they were pretty crappy?
