7/5/11 – Historic Jamestowne NHS

Historic Jamestowne is part of Colonial National Historical Park, and is considered a National Historic Site.  In 1607, 104 British colonists arrived to establish the colony of Virginia.  Remember Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith?   Yep, that’s the place. 

  

We didn’t get there until about 1:30.  There was a living history presentation by an interpreter playing John Rolfe, the man who married Pocahontas.  His premise was that we were new settlers arriving in 1620 and he compared how much easier it would be for us than it was for the first colonists who went through the Starving Times.  Pretty interesting way to learn history.

We wandered around the museum until time for the movie to start (which, BTW, is my least-liked video of any we’ve seen on this trip—a bit too PC for me.)  Cool theater though.

Then we headed across the footbridge over the swamp to James Island.  In 1907, the Tercentenary Monument was built for the 300^th anniversary of the settlement, and a Memorial Church was built next to the Old Church Tower.   They’re really big on memorials here. 

We wandered around Fort James and the church.  

The archeologists were covering up the digs for the day.

 

7/7/11 – Two days later we came back for the Archeology Tour.  The archeologist took us all around and explained about the excavations of the site.   She explained the history of the dig and told us about what they've found.  She said that Jamestowne is a great site if you’re not patient, because in almost every shovelful of dirt, they find lots of historical artifacts!   I really liked this tour.

They’ve already collected over a million artifacts, and for the 400^th anniversary they built an Archaearium to display some of them.  (Yes, yet another memorial marking another 100 years!  I thought it was kind of interesting that Queen Elizabeth II came over for the celebrations at both 350 and 400 years.) 

Then we headed over to the Jamestown Settlement.  (It has it's own blog page.)

For more pics, check the link:  Historic Jamestowne