the archaeology truncheons and a visit with the -- to the lab. 07 englishal 16 settlement had long been considered lost under the james til 1994 when bill kelso found evidence of the site. since then the project has on earth more than one million artifacts, including many complete relatives of the settlers. american history tv visited jamestown four and in the trenches archaeology tour with mr. kelso. what i'm going to do is to give you a little lecturette to different places about the property and talk about, a little bit about the history of jamestown, a little bit about geography, and a little bit about the history of the project.

and then we will go to each of the sites that are open right now, the trenches, you were promised this is in the trenches, so we are going to get into the trench -- at least one of them -- and you are on one of the few islands you can be on along the james river. that is one of the reasons why it was chosen as the first colony. it was about 35 miles from hampton roads or the opening to the ocean. the river goes forever into the mountains of virginia, gets different names, but at richmond, there are waterfalls. and it is not inevitable beyond vigable from here to there. that was important. they did not know that in the beginning. that gives the setting. jamestown, the whole idea was put together by a man you have probably never heard -- captain bartholomew --

privateer, had captured some spanish ships in the 16th century, and gave all to the queen. so we had the idea of establishing a colony, after he knew something about the fact that one already tried at northe island off of carolina, which became famously known as the lost colony and is still lost. no one is able to find a people. that was in the 1580. this is 20 years later. he felt there should be a permanent calling. olony. youattempt he made in 1602, may have heard of if you're from the new england area, he tried to put in a colony on what we think now is a list of the files -- think of as elizabeth isles.

indian trading did not work out the way he thought it would. he went back. nobody dies but he had the experian's how to navigate to the new world. experience of how to navigate to the new world. he had connections. they'd is the way it works -- th at is the way it works. he could get the charter that sir walter raleigh had to colonize in the new world. he had the legal means to do it. he had another relative who was one of the richest merchants in england. so we had a way of finding an expedition, so he put the skiing together in a place called otel hall near ipswich in england. yet a connection to another man

who brought in captain john smith and they got together and decided they were going to do this colony. and formed the virginia company. one of the earliest if not one of the earliest modern corporations was put together. and in the late 1606, they decide to bring three ships, 105 colonists, all men. well, three boys. and left in late december of 1606. if you may know, may 13 is where they land on jamestown island. that is a long time, and that was a problem. they came in here with a food deficit right away because it took too long to get here. they were instructed to go 100 miles from the coast so they would not -- they would be protected from any raids from the spanish. and that was a real fear, although they had a treaty in 1604 where they were not to be worried about them, but as i was saying, they are the falls of

the river at richmond. cannot go 100 miles. the fall back was to settle on some island that was strong by nature. the quote. it means it is surrounded by water, so it could be protected. they also decided -- and this is important -- they said they chose the island, too, because the channels so close to the shore they could tie the ships. now, the channel, that feery bo -- ferry is in the channel. the conventional wisdom is the tie the ships there. then they washed away. that is the story i got in 1963. they have a04 -- rough summer. rough is an understatement. more than half died in the first summer. and they began to realize what a difficult operation this is going to be and how underfunded they were, understaffed,

underfunded. it sounds like most nonprofits. anyway, jamestown has never changed. so, but they got through that, then smith leaves, but when he leaves there is another period that was known as the -- starting -- the starving town. the name tells you what happens. there were probably only 60 people left alive out of 215 in 1610. they pack up, they leave. so this would not be the first permanent english settlement had not at that very moment a new supply group come in and floor delaware came in wit -- overdelaware came in with 100 troops and they jumpstarted the operation. from that point, the colony is going to make it. reason i'm sticking to the

earliest years is because most of what we found archaeologically dates to that seminal eventt has been a really important thing for our understanding of what we found beneath the ground. so, if you will follow me down here, i will show you where we started and wife. a lot of people -- where we started and why. a lot of people wonder where we started digging. i first came to jamestown because i first read in a textbook -- modern american history, the european offshoot of american history begins a planet. --that begins at plymouth. that is the whole story. it is reinforced every year -- thanksgiving. there was a successful attempt

to plant a colony in 1607, and that's jamestown but it failed. that is the impression you get when you read any standard history, and hopefully, that is changing. it came out, i said i want to walk the ground were john smith and pocahontas walked. it was a park ranger here and he said, you're going to get wet. the river, gone. you cannot do that. but i got looking around and i was an archaeologist. i looked around and i saw a cut bank nothe soil in a far from here, and it showed three different players -- layers of soil. that is important. i will show you how we worked with that process. there was a pile of callay. under that was a dark layer of dirt. the top player said civil war. had some civil war artifacts. then under that it said colonial

and it had pottery. then under that is indian and there were stone tools. what is this black layer? that is pretty interesting. we were on at that time -- a piece of, not part of the national park. this is owned by preservation virginia, which is then known as the association for the preservation of virginia, and he said, well, we have never had a chance to look here. he gave me that look like maybe something is here. i said, what's that? put that in the back of my mind. became an archaeologist. started working in georgia and virginia, the caribbean, but i always thought that no one had proved that that fort washed away. on the horizon, was the 400th anniversary of settlement. a greatt wouldn't it be

thing to do to actually find what is being commemorated in 1607, 2007? so i talked to the landowners for 10 years, actually and trie d, here's a plan. i said, i'm sure it's there. i wrote that out. we are going to find this. so they agreed in 1993. began digging right where you're standing. now why here? well, my theory was because that church tower we are standing next to is a 17th century ichitectural feature, thought, one of the document said the church was in the midst of the fort. if i dig between here and that sewall, i will come up with a -- seawall, i will come up with a different color soil where uprig a -- it was clear it was

palisade of a triangle are shaped board would begin to appear. i started myself. right here. i couldn't hold back. i knew, i had a grant that would not kick in for a couple months. i started here. the first day i was digging under the grass and came up with a piece of pottery. this woman was here with her son watching this guy, pretty skeptical. she finally said to me, what you doing? like do people know you are out here digging in their sacred property? and i had that pottery. i was manic at the time because i knew this party was old enough. i'm finding james fort! she backed away with her son. come on, bobby, let's not upset the nice man. she really said that. that was 1994.

done, luckily enough, was to dig at this place which turned out to be a filled in cellar of a building that were replicated above. that we found pieces of by finding where a post had been put in the ground and left a dark s circle stain. for each one, there was a seller helmets,ellar full of armor. they came out of this pit in the exhibit. before you go, please see that. the dates of coints. it was military and old enough -- wow. this is james fort. it took many years to connect the dots to be able to tell how the fort laid out. on thee if you are westside inside or outside for a long time. but we went ahead in 1996, at some parts of this fort here.

out, almost 90% had escaped erosion. and then so many people came over here in so many died, their possessions were just scattered and buried in a cellar, ditches, wells. it gotr there is a hole filled with some pretty amazing artifacts. aw the collection goes over million and a half objects have been found here over 18 years. you open up an area, usually on a 10 foot square, find a streak that goes through that is the palisade line. we follow these things, square at a time. and open up a big area to understand it all. we will see a big area at the next up. let's head to the trenches. if you all would just go up on the hill and i'll go down on

the trenches. this is probably the largest trench we have ever opened up at one time. and what you are looking at is church.t of the 1608 if you are saying to yourself, what church? these orange flags mark the holes that were dug down as much as six feet or maybe eight. 12 foot between each one of these posts. you begin to imagine a post coming out of these holes another, and each one you can see there is a pattern. to where the orange flags are located. a descriptionm written by a man who is really

the chronicler of the whole theation, in 1610 wrote church is 24 feet wide and 60 feet long. so, then we began to find these enormous post holes and it began mathematically to add up. so, what we do, as a said, we open an area that is taken down to the grade that has not been disturbed. and this is it her at that point, look for our lines ofe. soil that has been dug into before. every place that someone dug under this clay is detectable. if you have one of these. and you scrape down really carefully. it is hard to show because it is dry, but this is mixed soil right here. splotches,tle yellow

but on the side it is very uniform. that has never been dug into before, but this has. these purple flags mark what do you think? grades. exactly right. the graves that line up in extreme eastern end of this postal pattern. and that really is the telling evidence that says this is a church. the important people are buried in the chancery. know also from records -- and there is a continual interplay of what we find in the ground with what is in the records and what is in the records back and forth. and we know from the time the church stood which was from 1608 to 1616 according to records, there were four people buried.

have hadle that would status to be buried here that we know of. there is the original cleric, reverend hunt. he died very close to the time the church was put up in 1608. could be. i would assume that he would be this guy here. two captains that died during that time. we have a plan to uncover the remains and see if we can identify these people beginning next spring. i think they should be marked. the whole church was the location lost. although there, there was a spanish -- that is what the sketches based on -- that had an x. mightl these thoughts x mark the spot. it does. a little off-center. fort but notof the exactly in the center. i had my ambition to walk where john smith and pocahontas walked. i got what i wanted.

you cannot see this post hole. this makes a rectangular space. pocahontas marries john rolfe in this church in 1614. i'm standinge you exactly, a little deeper than she was, but this is where pocahontas stood when she got married. had to. they stand in the center. you have been to weddings, you know. that is kind of wow. you can do that with archaeology. now i'm going to get you to come down, and we are going to get into the trench down there and we will gather out into here. schmidtzve danny digging away with dan smith. and you can tell them what you're doing there, dan. so, what we're doing as we are digging into a well.

this well happens to be in the southwest corner of the church. now, it looks like that is just a coincidence, but we wanted to make sure that it did not relate to the church. so thus we dig into it and see ablee can find date artifacts. we know this church is here until 1617 and shifts to another location. what we have been finding our artifacts later than that date. it looks like it is a coincidence. i think this will date to the mid-17th century. a 350 year old well. now, what we are doing, too, is we are widening the hole. wellell was a cask-lined about three feet in diameter. we are widening the hole so we can put a steel casing in to protects this. we have six more feet to go.

even though this does not relate to james fort, we are still going to go ahead and investigate this because we're almost to the bottom. bill: wells are interesting to archaeologist because we will probably hit water. and the well went four feet below that. anything that has been survive,sly wet will organics. we will probably find a barrel. inther, wood, even metal is better shape beneath the water because it keeps the oxygen away. a lot of oxygen away. we've also found seeds, plants i nn other wells. so, it is a treasure no matter what. we just can't resist. amazing, still nonetheless, that all of this is still here to be excavated. bill: you can't, nothing substitutes for being her standing on thise soil.

do you agree? that is what keeps us going. if you come to jamestown and experience this. this is 18 years of digging. we are not finished. these are big places inside the let debthave not inside this one acre. so archaeology can go on a long time. and i've got some young people here on the staff that will be available and interested, hopefully. what was pointed out that john smith was located, pretty interesting place. and that was just the ladies of the atva in 1907, they decided to put it there. he actually is right where the main entrance to the fort would have been. it is kind of eerie that there would be that decision to put that there, not knowing anything about the fort. all pretty much convinced the fort was not even here. comeu want to sort of, under the rope and go around the

edges where you can see down in. this is marianne and don, more staff archaeologists working this site. i mentioned the church was in the midst of the fort. most of the public buildings were in the midst of the forts. there was the storehouse. which we a guard, think is the sight of that. that is where the armor would be kept, where the soldiers that up,d go on duty would suit sort of the locker room. right next to it is a blacksmith shop site over by those posts, we found more than two dozen sword hilts. most just as one of our interesting visitor showed up, the queen of england in may of 2007. she came down, walked down the stairs right behind you. and looked at that site. we were finding all these arms

and armor. i was supposed to make sure she had a moment about the history of jamestown. i have gotht, well, to come up with something. i was pretty nervous. so i said, we're looking at the swords. this isanne said, well, the first time this thing mr. quitman has seen the light of day in 400 years. -- this english equipment has seen the light of day in the 400 years. what if she says, we would like them back? still belongs to us. what we're are doing right now -- marianne and don, maybe you can tell us what you're up to. what you're looking at is the footprint for one of the ground structures you are showing on the other part of the site. we're just taking down each of these trenches and post holes looking for any kind of artifacts that would help us get a good firm date for this

building and hopefully what it was used for. bill: this is a good example of when it is wet you can see the color changes. >> what items have you found in here? just pulled out a petry dish. it is always nice to find something intact. that was found in this post hole here. it wishes kind of dropped in -- it was just kind of dropped in. we are doing research on that to find out exactly what it was used for. a lot of pieces of pottery. there is a piece of bone sticking out of this wall. a piece of lead from the floor. so, i mean, there is stuff that was just trampled in. you're welcome to pass that around. >> perfectly round. history.ad

bill: i will show you a couple other sites down here. came10, when delaware in, he filled wells. incredible collections of artifacts and they built two row houses. we knew they were built by 1614, but we did not know where they were. they're right in here. we're marking them 20 inches above the original evidence. they were built with cobblestone foundations. these are buildings that were built to last and more like what was being b uilt in -- built in england. they were said to be two stories. this one had six rooms because we found three fireplaces. all these crosses are graves. the states to 1607. -- this dates to 1607.

there was a record of who died in august, september of 1607. ehere is a whole rash of thes gentlemen, soldiers. there was an older man and a younger man buried together in the same grave. there is a record of an older and younger man dying in that -- so, i think we are going to be able to labels on all these burials. then there was a burial of a boy who died at age 14. we can tell that by the development of the bone. and he had many health problems, one of which was an arrow in his leg. ire jaw had his entri had accessed and a broken collarbone. he is, those remains actually are in an exhibit at this the smithsonian. have any of you heard of the written in bone exhibit?

it is about what forensic anthropologist can learn from skeletal material, from modern murder cases all away back to the boy and one of the i mentioned earlier we will talk again about over here. as we were looking for the west wall of the fort in 2003, we discovered we ll. we-- a well. mathematically, it seems like the fort was bigger than we thought. so we started trenching in the seri. -- this area. the artifacts that are in the museum, the front glass wall you see over there. and we also discovered a burial way, butin a strange we found that it was parallel, laid parallel to what turned out to be the west wall. we dug down maybe two feet, and spe und what looks like a

ar, laying parallel to a row of nails. x-rayed it and saw that it was a that weve spear point were able to identify as a captain's staff. he's in front of the troops and marching. hmm. so here's the captain. now, i'd always wondered where captain bartholomew gosnold was buried, because he died on august 22. here is the captain. we brought the forensic anthropologist down. he arrives kind of blind scientifically. we did not tell them anything about gosnold. he looked at the remains and said, this is a very well preserved skeleton. he i can tell you, i think

died about age 35, 37 years old. 36 whenay, gosnold was he died. he is telling me it is possible to get dna from burials even 400 years old. it turns out it is mitochondrial dna. no, if you want to know how that turned out, there is a book that you can have for your very own. it's in here, the whole story. i think we have gosnold. inn statelyin gi washington. there is a complete reconstruction of him based on forensic sculptures, interpretations of bone development. done with myam tour. and i would thank you very much for your attention. >> [in audible]

englishriginal 1607 settlement at jamestown virginia was lost to history until an archaeologist unearthed evidence in 1994. jamestown the rediscovery project has catalogued more than one million artifacts from the area where john smith and pocahontas walked the grounds. next, american history tv takes you inside the project's labs to see how history is revealed to artifacts. jamestown island is on the james river about 35 miles from the atlantic ocean. bly: my name is bly straube, or foreienior curate

jamestown. a project of preservation virginia, the first statewide preservation organization in the united states, started in 1889. they started in jamestown in 1893. and so, we have got a long history of stewardship of the island, which the ladies who started the apva, which is now known as preservation virginia, they recognize this as america's birthplace. they wanted to preserve it. unfortunately, new england got all the glory through the years because jamestown had pretty much disappeared. all that stood on the island was a church tower. but the site itself, the original fort, was thought to be washed away into the james river. there had been searches for it on preservation virginia

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