Before the British set foot on Jamestown Island and claimed the land as their own, centuries of Native Americans lived on the land.
A new exhibit at Historic Jamestowne, “The World of Pocahontas, Unearthed,” explores the Native American story as it became intermingled with the English during James Fort’s early years.
Thousands of artifacts – pipes, pots, beads and tools – shaken loose from the dirt in a trash pit at Jamestown are incorporated into the exhibit. The collection showcased in the Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium demonstrates the intermingling of the Native American and English races they began to coexist.
Written historical records do not reflect what the artifacts reveal: Powhatan women were living and working in the fort.
More than 2,000 mussel shell beads and the stone drills that forged them, bone needles and stone celts used to make mats and baskets, were brought up from the earth and are now on display in the new exhibit.
“[The exhibit] provides fascinating new evidence of encounters between Indian peoples of the Chesapeake region and the first wave of English settlers, part of an ongoing research effort that is reshaping our view of the early decades of Jamestown’s and the nation’s history,” said Jim Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, in a news release.
Roughly 48,000 shards of Native American pottery have been unearthed at the fort, and from the broken pieces 13 full pots have been reassembled for display. A pot believed to be fashioned by the English pipe maker Robert Cotton, who arrived at the fort in 1608, is also on display. The pot was made by molding clay against a Virginia Indian basket, and it bears the woven pattern of the basket.
“The World of Pocahontas, Unearthed,” is open 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily to Historic Jamestown ticket holders.
