tour the first and third tuesday of every month through november, which is called "in the trenches." this is by -- make an appointment and there's a fee and i personally take people around the site on those days. and we have another tour for the collections. don't we? >> we have new philadelphia, ohio, is next and jason, you're on the air. >> caller: [ inaudible ] >> jason, speak up. i can't hear your question. go ahead. >> caller: what happened to the [ inaudible ] tribe? do they still exist? >> it was a question about what happened to the tribe. >> the pallatan? >> yes. >> right. there are groups called the united tribes of virginia. there are i believe eight. and they are descendants on reservations, one of the oldest reservations in the country.

so, they're still here as they say. >> we had a caller earlier ask about the lost colony in north carolina, some recent news that they may have discovered a map or indication of a fort on a map in the british museum in looking at it. bly straube, has anybody done any excavations in that area? >> we have done some preliminary survey of the area and found some interesting hints of early artifacts, 16th century. possibly. and so we have plans to revisit the area very, very soon. >> how much are both of you involved or in contact with your british colleagues on early colonial or precolonial history? >> well, we both have, you know. >> we're both fellows of the society of antiquaries.

you have to be elected to join, an honorary english society, british society. it's very old. 200 years old -- 400 years old. i have colleagues -- >> much of the records, are much of the records kept in the uk? are there good records about jamestown, for example? >> well, yeah. most of them are known and have been looked at. and we have transcriptions of them. but, you know, there's always a surprise discovery like we were talking about, the lost colony map. we actually have studied another map in the british museum. it shows -- really shows that the fort -- the actual fort where we found it was already -- that location had been put on a map by a mapmaker in 1608 and no one had recognized that that was really, you know, pinpointing the site.

>> hear from our callers again. oxford, mississippi, joanne, hello. >> caller: good afternoon. i'm enjoying this enormously. i saw the exhibition at the smithsonian called "written in bone," and it was one of the most fascinating things i've ever seen. i noticed you showed the captain gosnold reproduction. the one that really captured my imagination, you had a video of a woman and there was an interpretive reconstruction of a woman who would walk away from you in the video. you would see how you started with her skeleton and then the forensic reproduction. she walked with a limp. it was stunning. it was stunning. and i was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about who you think she was and the other reproduction was of the head of a woman who was believed to be a slave and you determined that based on the shape of her

back which would have been bent in such a way over years and years of literally back-breaking labor. if you could tell us about those people, i'd really love to hear it. >> those individuals actually aren't from our site. they're from other 17th century sites in virginia. so, we don't really know particulars about them. but it is a fascinating exhibit. just to learn -- to see what you can learn from skeletal material. and we understand it's been extremely popular. >> that caller mentioned being fascinated by the video. over the 20 years that you've been working at jamestown, what's been the biggest technological leap that has helped your work there? for both of you? >> well, technological. it's just the geographic information system. the fact that we can record in

three dimensions where we find something, you know, at the depth and the location in the fort. and all that information we can put in photographs and catalog material from the artifact finds. it can be so accessible at one computer. to me it's just a marvel. i started out with pencil and paper and that was our high technology 50 years ago in archaeology. but this is just astounding. and without it we would be really hard put to keep track of all the thousands of pieces of data that come out. >> next caller is bill in lakewood, colorado. bill? >> caller: yeah, dr. kelso, this is bill hughes and i wanted to thank you for what you did. i was stationed at ft. houston back in 1966. and i spent many weekends trying to find jamestown. and i was totally amazed that it wasn't -- couldn't find it.

that's one. two, i did find in the church in williamsburg, i did find george washington's grandmother. i was doing some rubbings on the old -- so, i don't know if it's true or not, but i was always, you know, i have a picture of that gravestone. i was really enthusiastic. but i want to thank you. you really filled a big void in my life. >> well, i'm glad we could find jamestown finally, that's good. >> bill kelso's book "jamestown the buried truth" if you want some further details -- if you can't get to the site or you've been there and you want more information, the book "jamestown, the buried truth." next up is bridgeport, ohio. hello, lou, go ahead. lou, make sure you mute the television, turn down your set there, and go ahead with your

question for bill kelso or bly straube. i'm going to put you on hold, lou. bill kelso, we just showed your book, "the buried truth." how long did that one take you to write? >> well, it came out in '06. so, it's always -- it's always in production, really, and a revision, too. i'm working on a revision of that because we found so much since '06. but that basically tells the story the way i saw it. and, i mean, it was -- since we started the project in 1994, i guess you could say it took 12 years. >> the caller a few minutes ago calling and saying he was in 1966 trying to find jamestown. do you find a lot of amateur archaeologists telling you much of the same thing? >> no. i've kind of thought what he was saying it's so confusing here because there's other types of jamestowns around here.

and the signs are just everywhere, and it's confusing for a visitor to come in. that may be what he was up against. >> let's try lou in bridgeport, ohio. go ahead. >> caller: yes. i thank you for taking my call. i was wondering, it's -- all this talk about the colonists and settlers in jamestown, but i was wondering how it affected the indians, natural inhabitants of the area, when the settlers came to jamestown. thank you. >> i didn't get that question. >> i didn't either. >> that caller was on the impact of the indian culture, the native american culture, you touched on that a little bit on the artifacts you found there. but more broadly what was the impact of the english settlement there? >> well, ultimately, the

population was minimize to have had virginia indians. they were given reservations ultimately. but immediately in the first contact, there was evidence of friendship and there was evidence of violence. so it's hard to just make one generalization about the impact of the two cultures on each other immediately. my view was that the indians were although they far outnumbered the colonists, 15,000 to 104 to begin with, they still saw iron coming in, they saw guns, they saw boats, sailing boats, that that technology would be useful to them. so i think they let jamestown survive. they could have wiped it out, but they let it survive because of the fact that this could -- technologically enhance their own world, you know, the empire really and help them against their enemies. >> here's deerfield, massachusetts.

todd, your question or comment? >> caller: yes. first off, thank you for taking my call. dr. kelso, this is a question for you. the martins 100 site that was discovered by ivernol hume, how much overlap is there between your project and the project that iver did? and did he have any interest, i'm sure he did, in coming to your site and seeing what was going on as well? >> yes, in fact, he was on an advisory board for the first year here. and he kind of pointed to the first place to dig, as a matter of fact, in the beginning. first place to dig, as a matter of fact, in the beginning and had quite an impact on us. now, how did it relate to martin's hundred? it dates to 1690 i believe. i worked on that too in the survey years ago with him. and so that existed down river.

it's probably six, eight miles away and was a particular -- we call it a particular plantation. a new way that the virginia company was settling virginia. and jamestown was the seat of the government. so that would have been representatives from that area in the first representative assembly. there was always some kind of connection. then it went on to be a plantation during the 17 the century. >> how far is the original historic jamestown from the current seat of government, richmond? how far down the james river? >> 50 miles. i guess 50. >> sebring, florida next up. georgian. >> go ahead. >> georgiann. go ahead. sebri sebring, florida. >> caller: i was fortunate enough to bring my children from

the ipswich and felixville area to virginia. so they got to see where the settlers came from versus where they were coming to. and they knew that they lived in big mansions in england and over here we were living in mud huts. and i would also like to know if you are checking around in gloucester around paul tench chimney where chief potench had his home. and if so are you -- >> no. well, at another site. excuse me. at another site where rakamiko was was really where pawatan was when the settlers came in. it's some distance from the pawatan chimney. that i think is legendary more than real, that that was wherever -- that that was a page

powhatan location at all. >> here's los angeles and carrie. go ahead. >> caller: yes. i was wondering if you've done any excavating in the water where the portion of the fort goes out into the water. >> no, we haven't because of the fact the fort is nine feet above the bottom of the river, right next -- at the shoreline. so anything that -- so that level is the level of 1607. so anything that was left from the fort that is in a context above nine feet would be washed away, gone. there's just nothing that could be out there except for the very bottom of a well. the only part missing is about a 17% pie-shaped piece of the fort that did wash away before asea

wall was put down to protect -- to stop the erosion. >> how easy is it to dig? it looks like kind of sandy soil from our video. >> yes, it is sandy soil. trouble is when it dries out it becomes like concrete. so it's tough. and the real problem here is -- the best time we can excavate is during the summer. students are available from field schools. we have one every year. that's also when things heat up around here. so it is a very, very tough, physically challenging operation. >> couple more calls here. lansing, michigan. hi to liz. you're on the air. >> caller: thanks for taking my call. i visited jamestown 30 years ago. and just from watching your program it looks like the development, the research has come much further along than what i had seen. but at the time it was in a

small private tour company, and the tour guide at the time said that some of the settlers from jamestown, they were seeking people from eastern europe, specifically like poland, to come and work in glassworking or glassmaking and because of the forests in the area that would have allowed the settlers to build the fires they needed to work the sand to make it into glass. i'm of polish descent. and i've always wondered if that was true or not. is there anything to that from what the tour guide told me 30 years ago? >> yes, we mow from the historical documentation that both individuals from poland and from germany were brought to make glass and to make pitch and tar and soap ashes, which was a commodity very much in demand in england and expensive to produce because of the lack of forests. and we have found lots and lots of evidence of the glassmaking in the fort. it appears that before they

built the glass house off the island they actually were working in the fort to make their trials of glass. so we have all these crucibles and cullette, which is used glass brought to make new glass within our fort contexts. >> let's go to columbia, maryland and alice. alicia. hi there. >> caller: thank you. good afternoon. could you kindly give us the names of those i think you call them united tribes? and then also could you please answer my question, are these tribes recognized by the state? and then also are they also recognized by the u.s. government? thank you very much. >> okay. i can try to name them.

there's upper and lower chickhomnee. panunki. >> monakan. >> that's fine at least. and -- but we worked primarily with panunki, matapanai, and some chikahonnee. and they are not federally recognized. i believe they are state recognized. >> they are recognized by the state. >> yeah, state rogds. >> and there are descendants of those tribes still living in the area? >> yeah. >> yes. there are some out here today, as a matter of fact. >> here's new orleans, and we say hello to eads. hi. >> caller: yes. wonderful program. a very quick statement. my mom's family always claimed they descended from a jamestown captain, a captain harris. my question specifically is what political authority would have

granted military commissions to these early militia captains at that jamestown colony? >> well, that's a very good question. there is -- the whole operation was run by what was called the virginia company. but the crown had sort of last say in whatever they did. and they -- when the first resident governor came over, he appointed a lot of men to various positions. so i think it's from the crown to the company to the -- their rank, what they would have as far as military men. do you know, bly? >> i don't know when harris was here. but it really depends on the time.

>> yeah. >> because 1624 virginia company lost their charter. so. became a royal company. so. >> before we wrap up with phone callers, one twitter question. a tweet from tracy, who asks, "is there a specific piece of information or an artifact that you hope to find?" >> i know what you want. >> yeah. i take a lot of heat for this. we haven't found a complete cannon yet. and that's up there. >> we found the muzzle of one. but that's not good enough for him. >> not good enough. >> it blew up when it was fired. >> bly-s there an artifact that you'd like to find? >> go ahead. you go. >> oh, goodness gracious. you know, we have almost found everything you can imagine from straight pens to guns. i love them all. that's a hard question for me. >> here's williamsburg, virginia. jeff, go ahead with your comment or question.

>> caller: hi, dr. kelso. i met you and the curator a couple years ago. my name is jeff. my question is from 1607 to 1699, and i understand that a lot of the records burned, but there were quite a number of ships that arrived in jamestown, probably 100 or 1,000. is there any detailed book that you used in your research that describes those ships arriving and possibly who was on those ships during that time period? >> it's -- well, to my experience it's scattered in the records. there's no comprehensive list that i know of. >> they're not complete either. yeah. there are some passenger lists. but unfortunately, no one's compiled it all. >> yeah, it wouldn't have survived. >> one more comment here. a question from lisa in sacramento, california. hey. >> caller: hi. i had heard that john rolf was

the one responsible for bringing tobacco growing in virginia. and i was just wondering if that was true or not. thanks. >> yes. in fact, we believe that he was inspired by the time he was ship wrekd wreked in bermuda, which occurred between 1609 and 1610. he spent ten months in bermuda. where they found tobacco growing when they shipwrecked there. so it seems to me and others as well that he spent that time working with the tobacco. we also found a couple of tobacco pipes made out of bermuda limestone that were probably made to smoke john rolf's tobacco on bermuda. and then, you know, he continued his work once he arrived here. we even found a tobacco seed down a well. which is pretty cool because they're microscopic. they're very hard to see. >> well, we want to thank both of you. bly straube, senior curator, and bill kelso, the director of the jamestown rediscovery

archaeological project, for spending the last hour and more with american history tv and taking our viewers' and callers' comments. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we did too. >> thanks. on may 14th, 1607, 104 english settlers landed at jamestown island, virginia to establish a college nu for the virginia company. the location served as the capital of virginia until 1699. thought to be lost to history forever under the james river, the original fort was unearthed in 1994 by the jamestown rediscovery archaeological project. we visited jamestown to learn how the story of the 1607 settlers is being revealed every day through the study of artifacts. >> my name is bly straube. i'm a senior curator for the jamestown rediscovery project. and that's a project that started in 1994. it's a project of preservation virginia. the first statewide historic

preservation organization in the united states. it is confuse iing that there a so many jamestowns. and many people visit jamestown, and it turns out that they never went to the real place, the place where all the history happened. so there's a jamestown that's a living history museum, jamestown settlement, and they interpret jamestown, and they have three wonderful ships. and they've reconstructed a fort and an indian village. and they have a huge museum over there. that is a state-run organization. so they get state funding for that. then the island itself, the original site of jamestown, is co-managed by the national park service and preservation virginia. so it's an unusual private-public partnership that goes on here. the park service owns the majority of the island, 1,500 acres. preservation virginia has around

23. but their 23 acres incorporates the site of the original fort. the church. the church tower. and the last government building that was on the property. so they've got a lot of history condensed in that 23 acres. and it's the -- it's preservation virginia then who are doing the archaeology that visitors will see on the site today. we call our project jamestown rediscovery. so we're the jamestown rediscovery project of preservation virginia. we do not get federal support and we do not get state support for our work. so we're highly reliant on donatio donations. visitors coming because we get half of the gate receipts on visitors coming through. and grants. and that's how we survive. and it's hard in these times.

this site is incredibly rich. it's just amazing. and we've been walking over the material all these years. it's been under our feet. when everyone was saying the fort was out in the river. i mean, it's just astounding that there's so much material. and i thought about why. for one thing there was so much death in the early years and sickness. and i think a lot of things just got thrown away because they didn't belong to people. they sort of were objects, possessions without a possessor. and they just -- and people just didn't have the strength or willpower to do much of anything. we find a lot of like lead thrown away that could have been remelted and reused, recycled. and it wasn't. just tossed out. i think that's one reason. i think the fort itself, being a protective barrier, maintained a lot of trash within its

perimeter. there didn't seem to be any orchestrated efforts to wheelbarrow the trash out and toss it in the river or anything. it just seems to have collected inside the fort. and then there were periodic cleanup periods and rebuilding efforts when new governors came in, for instance. and then things would get dumped into old wells or old holes to fill them in. so i think that also contributed to it. but yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful site. we have ceramics from all over the world. and this is really reflecting how cosmopolitan london is in the early 17th century and how connected it was to the rest of the world. to the merchants of the world. the hensiotic league. it's not representing these different countries trading direct directly with jamestown. some of the objects are personal possessions. and a lot of our gentlemen would

have access to these exotic wares from other places. even though they were coming to settle a very uninhabited and lonely place, unconnected with any society really, they were bringing their best materials to eat from and to drink from. we've got facon de venice glass and chinese porcelain. you can see some of that porcelain that they're bringing. so it's really a different picture of jamestown than one would expect. it's rather wealthy in some regards. colorful. we've got professions like jewelers sitting in the fort and making jewelry. i mean, not all was death and dying and killing indians. we find a lot of their leisure

time activities. lots and lots of gaming dice. and chess pieces and backgammon pieces. musical instruments. so it's from all sort of facets of their life being reflected here. people visiting historic jamestown have the opportunity to come in and look up close at the artifacts. they have to sign up. it's called a curator's tour. and we give them the whole orientation, what we do with artifacts behind closed doors. so it's a unique opportunity to get an up close look. and they can ask questions. they can even at times touch 400-year-old artifacts. you know, things that john smith may have used. so i think it's a pretty enriching experience for visitors. we only bring ten people through at a time, keep the group really small, so that it's a better experience for everybody. the park itself, once you come through the gate, you can wander

the entire grounds. you can see the archaeology going on. we have a museum on site. it's called the archierium. and it is full of about 1,000 artifacts all the from the ex a excavatio excavations. everything you see in there is from excavations we've been doing since 1984. it's a unique place. there aren't that many archaeological museums in existence. that's free as well. you can sign up for a special tour if you like with our director, dr. william kelso, and that's called the in the trenches tour. that's a little extra. and he takes you under the ropes. so you get an up close and personal look from his perspective. >> how could something so precious in american history and virginia history have been sort of lost for hundreds of years? >> that's an interesting question. i think it wasn't lost for probably the first 100. but nobody mentioned -- you know, they didn't talk about it.