Jamestown Excavation Reveals Signs of Strife

The 104 settlers who founded the first permanent English colony in America had to defend themselves from the fatal threats of disease, starvation, hostile natives--and quite possibly each other.

Archeologists who recently uncovered the remains of a soldier from the original Jamestown fort believe that the young man may have been killed in a dispute among the settlers. Lodged in the skeleton’s right knee is a musket ball that matches pistols and other weapons discovered from the same period.

“There certainly were problems within the ranks. It wasn’t something settlers wrote about, especially if they wanted people to come to the settlement,” said William Kelso, director of archeology at the Assn. for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, which is excavating the site.

The skeleton is just one of the finds on display at the National Geographic Society as part of a new exhibit on Jamestown. The display aims to shed light on the early days of the colony, home to such legends as Capt. John Smith, Pocahontas and tobacco farmer John Rolfe.

“This has literally become the cornerstone of America,” Kelso said.

For decades, historians maintained that the James River had washed away remnants of the original fort, established in 1607. But several years ago, Kelso and his team unearthed the path of a fence that would have enclosed the fort.

Using writings of the earliest settlers, they traced a triangular path and begin digging, coming up almost immediately with pieces dating to the early 1600s.

Bowls, candlesticks and chest handles make up just some of the nearly 200,000 artifacts the team has uncovered. One piece, a signet ring adorned with a bird crest, belonged to William Strachey, whose account of his sea voyage is believed to be the basis for Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

The excavation crew most recently dug up the bones of a young woman, thought to have died at the fort between 1607 and 1610. If so, she would have been one of two female settlers in the colony’s earliest days.

Archeologists have explored only 11% of the island fort thus far. The exhibit ends May 17.