June 2026

June was a productive month for the archaeologists and collections teams thanks to the help of nine students from this year’s field school. The enlarged crew excavated three main areas in and around James Fort. The first area, called “West Flag” by the archaeologists, is on the northern edge of Confederate Fort Pocahontas, and is named for a flag-shaped feature found on a copy of a map drawn by Captain John Smith. The second area, dubbed “North Field”, is as its name implies, in a field north of James Fort. The third, called “Seawall”, is in and around James Fort’s eastern bulwark, very close to the Seawall shielding the island from the James River. The students also spent a lot of time inside the Jamestown Rediscovery Center, learning from our curators and conservators how to manage artifacts once they come in from the field.

The first excavation site is at the northwest end of Confederate Fort Pocahontas and is a continuation of excavations begun during 2023’s field school. This site is called “West Flag” by the archaeologists, because it’s close to where the western part of the “flag” feature shown on the 1608 Zúñiga map, a copy of one drawn by Captain John Smith, should be. Being so close to Fort Pocahontas, Civil War-era features are also possible. The archaeologists and field school students have excavated a large number of bricks here that were discovered during 2023’s field school. Interestingly, these bricks have no traces of mortar, meaning they were not used (i.e. this is not a deconstruction pile). Perhaps these were leftovers from a building project. Some of them are impressed with fingerprints, the result of someone moving them before they were dry. Additional bricks appear to be intentionally shaped into forms other than the traditional rectangle.

The excavations here are led by Staff Archaeologist Ren Willis and she is joined by Archaeological Field Technician Josh Barber and Archaeological Intern Natalie White. Subgroups of the field school students rotate through this and the other sites to experience what each area has to offer. Once the team removed the bricks, they found a utility ditch from the early twentieth century but no sign of the “flag” feature yet, nor anything that can be associated with Fort Pocahontas. The archaeologists found two postholes here this month but more are needed before patterns can be discerned. Strewn amongst the bricks was a stone slab, devoid of decoration save an incised line. Besides the bricks and stone, relatively few artifacts have been coming out of these excavations. A pipestem made of European clay and another from local clay were found, as were sherds of creamware and pearlware ceramics. A button, lead shot, and animal bone were also found here this month, as were a shotgun shell and an as-yet unidentified amorphous metal object.

At the North Field dig there is still no sign of the subfloor pit grouping the archaeologists are searching for. In previous years’ excavations, two groups consisting of a subfloor pit, a single posthole, and an ashen feature were found in a line running roughly east/west eighteen feet apart from each other. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) suggests another pit is thirty-six feet to the east from the second grouping. Could these be evidence of the “fortie or fiftie several houses” that Captain John Smith writes were built in 1608? So far it is hard to tell, because there is little in the way of archaeological evidence that can be used to date the features. The dig here is led by Staff Archaeologist Caitlin Delmas and she’s joined by Site Supervisor Elizabeth Tarulis and Archaeological Field Technicians Eleanor Robb and Gaby Bombino. As with the other two sites, groups of field school students assisted the team and received instruction each day.

The GPR-found eastmost pit being thirty-six feet from the second grouping, there should be a third pit eighteen feet between the two if the pattern holds true. The purpose of the dig here is to find this “new” pit. But so far, there is no sign of it. A series of unrelated ditches runs north/south through this area, and they are very close to where the undiscovered grouping should be. It’s possible that one or more of the ditches’ constructions disturbed the pit, but if true, the disturbance could help date it. In archaeology, when a feature cuts another feature, it is newer than the latter one. A layman’s example is a child stepping on a sandcastle at the beach. The footprint, a “feature” created when the child stepped on the castle, is newer than the castle walls it cut.

The ditches were discovered by ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and the west-most of the three was found during their excavations this week. It may be the boundary ditch between the properties of Colonel Nathaniel Bacon (the namesake of his rebellious nephew) and John Howard and it dates to the 1690s. But the other two ditches aren’t in the same square as the boundary ditch. Hopefully one or both of the adjacent squares just to the east will contain evidence for them…and the subfloor pit grouping. The archaeologists are hoping that the ditches and the subfloor grouping intersect, so that they can see what cuts what, and therefore which feature(s) are older.

A palisade wall runs through these excavations as well. Also oriented east/west, the palisade is thought to date to the mid 17th-century and is likely unrelated to the subfloor pit groupings. Interestingly, it intersects the Bacon/Howard boundary ditch and then doesn’t immediately reappear on its eastern side. This might be the end of the palisade or perhaps a soil disturbance has destroyed its footprint here. The imminent excavation of the square just to the east should give some clarity on this matter.

A few artifacts have turned up here in June, including sherds of Border ware, Westerwald, whiteware, Native ceramics, Portuguese faience, stoneware and two big sherds created by Thomas Ward, who began his work at Jamestown in the 1620s. A few pieces of lead shot were also found, as were several European pipe stems and bowls. English flint, a partial delft title, a pair of pliers, and a crucible base were also found by the archaeologists and field school students. While we did not see many artifacts in the previous excavations into the subfloor pits themselves, the plowzone up above did still have an assortment of artifacts like we have been finding in this new area.

At the Seawall dig, taking place largely inside the footprint of the east bulwark, the archaeologists and students continue their excavations of a part of the island that will be affected by upcoming path construction. Staff Archaeologist Natalie Reid leads the dig here, and she is joined by Senior Staff Archaeologist Anna Shackelford, Archaeological Field Technicians Katie Griffith and Amelia Fahl, Archaeological Intern Faith Jacob, and field school students. The area is chock full of early twentieth-century utility hardware including water pipes, a septic tank, and an artesian well. All of this modern hardware has made the excavations slow going and the team is also running into the edges of other archaeology from the 1990s and early 2020s. Luckily these past digs’ locations were surveyed and recorded so the team knew when they were getting close.

Although the archaeologists are digging in mostly modern contexts, the early twentieth-century utility construction churned up a lot of artifacts as it went into historic layers. So as the team excavates these disturbed contexts, a significant amount of artifacts are being found. Several different ceramic types are turning up, including Midlands purple (with two sherds that mend!), Martincamp, Border ware, delft tile, and a sherd of a Spanish mercury bottle. Other artifacts found here this month include three projectile points (with one of the clear quartz variety), a Bookbinder pipe, European pipes, English flint, local chert, lead shot, and a copper alloy buckle.

In the Vault, our resident arms and armor expert, Curator Janene Johnston, is gathering and assessing three artifact types related to firearms for inclusion in the reference collection. Ramrods, scourers, and worms were all important tools in the firing and maintenance of small arms. All three of these tools had wooden pole components but these have (mostly) not survived. Ramrods were used during the firing process to push lead shot down the barrel and press it and the previously-loaded gunpowder against the breech. We have about thirty of these artifacts and surprisingly one of them had a surviving wood fragment inside it. Most of the ramrods in the collection are made of iron but we have a copper alloy example as well.

Another firearms tool in the collection is the scourer. These were used to clean the barrel’s interior of gunpowder residue that could cause jams or even explosions. There are approximately fifty scourers in the Jamestown collection and they are all made of iron. The third type of firearm tool Janene is working with this month is called a worm. The purpose of a worm is to pull jammed shot out of the barrel. Worms typically had a corkscrew form and as iron is much harder than lead shot, their tips could be twisted into the ammunition, piercing it so it could be pulled out. These are much rarer at Jamestown, with only eight found so far.

As with other artifact types, Janene will choose examples that represent distinct styles of each tool to be included in the reference collection. These representatives of the larger collection will be housed downstairs in the Vault for easy access to researchers both within and outside Jamestown Rediscovery. Should a researcher like to see additional examples of a type, these can be brought downstairs from long-term storage.

Another artifact type that Janene is intimately familiar with is spangles. These were similar in purpose and size to modern sequins, designed to catch light and draw attention to the item they adorned. They were made of metal; those found at Jamestown are typically composed of a copper alloy but a few silver examples exist as well. Our archaeologists have found spangles of two shapes, round and teardrop. Usually they’re discovered singly, likely a result of them falling off the object they were attached to. But notably dozens were found attached to a captain’s sash discovered in the grave of Captain William West, who died fighting Virginia Indian warriors near present-day Richmond. This month Janene was featured on the “That Shakespeare Life” podcast, speaking with host Cassidy Cash about spangles: what they were, how they were made, and how they came to be found at Jamestown. You can listen to the podcast here.

On the Seawall near the Dale House, Assistant Curator Lindsay Bliss found some interesting artifacts while floating soil samples this month. During the floating of a sample from the 2024 burial excavations (1607 burial ground), she found two Morrow Mountain II projectile points which date from 4800 to 4200 BCE. In another soil sample from !!!JR4874B.02!!!, she found a pipe bowl, an aglet, and a bone fragment. Another projectile point and Native ceramics were found in a soil sample collected from inside the 1680s Church Tower. Flotation uses water to separate objects by density and is particularly useful in finding botanical remains, especially tiny ones that would likely be missed in a traditional archaeological screening process. These light objects tend to float to the top during flotation and are captured in the “light fraction” while those that sink are captured in the “heavy fraction”. An explanation of the process by Senior Curator Leah Stricker can be viewed on the Jamestown Rediscovery YouTube channel.

Jamestown Rediscovery is saddened by the departure of Curatorial Intern Molly Morgan who completed her internship this month. Molly greatly furthered our understanding of Jamestown’s Native ceramic collection while she was here, gathering, identifying, cataloging, and mending thousands of sherds during her year with us. This month she continued that process, working on a Native ceramic vessel found in James Fort’s first well. The vessel, probably a jar, pot, or bowl, is unique in the collection because of the diamond pattern on its exterior, incised with broad lines.

The shell-tempered vessel dates to the Middle Woodland period, which includes the time of European contact in Virginia. It was hand-coiled, and prior to Molly’s work it was on display in the Archaearium museum. Molly found additional sherds while searching through the collection and mended them to the existing partial vessel, meaning it will be more complete when it goes back on display.

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Dig Update Archive, 2004-present