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Rediscovering Jamestown

Brent Smith, 8, of Houston, Texas, cannot take his eyes off the skeleton. Lying in a glass case at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., the skeleton--with a bullet in its right leg--is a mystery. "I just need to know what happened to this guy," says Brent. "What was his name? How did he die?"

That's what historians are wondering too. The skeleton is nearly 400 years old. It was found in Jamestown, Virginia, site of the first permanent English settlement in America. For years, folks thought that the old fort there had been washed away by the James River. But new discoveries, including this skeleton, prove that the fort and its clues to colonial life are buried in the soil.

Many of these finds went on display at Geographic this month. Visitors can examine coins, candlesticks, armor and arrowheads to learn what life was like for the settlers.

A City That Wasn't Built To Last
On May 13, 1607, a ship carrying 104 men and boys from England arrived at a pear-shaped peninsula in Virginia. It was named Jamestown, after Britain's King James. The soil and climate seemed just right for a new home. Using old-fashioned spelling, Captain John Smith described the spot as "a verie fit place for the erecting of a great cittie."

The colonists built a triangle-shaped fort along the river to protect themselves from the Spanish and Native Americans. Over the next few years, disease, starvation and attacks by the Powhatan tribe killed many settlers. In 1608, a fire ravaged the fort.

Eventually, Jamestown, Virginia's capital, shifted east of the original site. In 1698 another fire destroyed important buildings there. The Governor of Virginia decided to move the capital to nearby Williamsburg. Old Jamestown began to disappear--at least aboveground.

Dusting Off History
But what about underground? During the 1940s and 1950s, archaeologists began to explore and dig in parts of Jamestown. They found many artifacts but believed that the original fort must have washed away.

Archaeologist Bill Kelso didn't think so. In April 1994, he and others began digging at a tempting new spot: "There was a piece of ground, shaped like a triangle, that no one had ever put a shovel into."

His hunch paid off. Kelso and his team soon found bits of pottery that could only have been from the 1607 fort. "That first day, we knew we had found it!"

Since then, archaeologists have uncovered more than 180,000 artifacts from the early 1600s, including beads, keys and toys. And only a fraction of the fort's grounds have been explored! "We don't dig things up, we uncover them," says Kelso. The process requires great care: "You just can't hurry it up."

The team figured out the fort's exact location after finding marks in the ground where the original palisades (wooden spikes) had been. Using a tiny 1608 drawing and their math skills, the searchers sketched an outline of the fort. One corner is in the river, but most of it is on dry land, where its contents can be uncovered.

Clues To Colonial Life
The recent discoveries are giving scientists and historians the best picture ever of how early colonists lived and died. "Archaeology is like a time machine," says Kelso.

Pistols, knives and heavy armor tell the story of a violent time. But, says Kelso, "we started finding copper, copper, copper, just piles of it!" Colonists may have used copper, a precious metal, to buy peace with the Powhatan.

Some of the most intriguing finds are a few skeletons of the first settlers. Anthropologist Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Institute is thrilled to study these remains: "Bones tell you stories of what life was like for those people, what killed them, even what they ate."

So what about the skeleton now on display in Washington? Nicknamed J.R., for Jamestown Rediscovery, he was probably a teenager who bled to death after being hit by a musket ball. But who shot J.R.? And why? It is a colonial murder mystery.

The exhibit is open until May 17. But archaeologists will continue searching for the remains of 1607 Jamestown for at least 10 years. By then they hope to have more answers for kids like Brent Smith, who looks one last time at the skeleton and says, "Wow! I really like knowing what happened 400 years ago."

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The True Story Of Pocahontas And Captain John Smith?

Everyone knows the Jamestown tale of how Pocahontas rescued Captain John Smith from her father, Chief Powhatan. But is it true? No one can say. Smith, right, enjoyed telling stories about being saved by women! What's certain is that Pocahontas came to like the English settlers after they kidnapped her to use as a bargaining chip with the chief. She learned English, was renamed Rebecca, and wed her true love, farmer John Rolfe, in 1614.

In 1616, Pocahontas and Rolfe toured England with their infant son Thomas. Pocahontas delighted King James and was treated like a princess. But just before the family was to return to Virginia, she fell ill and died. She is buried in England.

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