In 2015, Jamestown Rediscovery began drafting a proposal for Jamestown Island to be included on an internationally recognized list of culturally significant locations that includes places like the Vatican and the Taj Mahal.
In 2016, they were denied.
But researchers and historians say that doesn’t make the location any less significant.
“What struck me was that here we have at Jamestown the original site, both the fort and town of a place that saw very important developments,” said James Horn, president of Jamestown Rediscovery. “I think the issue is that these sites are not necessarily judged in a way that corresponds to what I, or even most people, would consider to be very important historical developments.”
Horn and Kym Hall, superintendent for Colonial National Historical Park, were the leaders spearheading the application process with Jamestown Rediscovery, through Preservation Virginia, to become listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a significant site.
UNESCO has identified, protects and preserves sites of cultural and natural heritage around the world, according to the organization’s website. A quality of these sites is they are considered an “outstanding value” to humanity— a quality of which Hall believes Jamestown Island has.
“We felt the nature of the significance of Jamestown Island as a whole was an intersection of cultures,” Hall said. “Just the way it all came together certainly shaped a big part of the world and forming our country. We felt (the application) was justified.”
One of the benefits to being recognized as a world heritage site, said Jamestown Rediscovery director of archaeology David Givens, is that it puts the location on a global level of significance, which would attract more visitors.
Part of the difficulty with becoming an official World Heritage site, Horn said, is the list of criteria the sites must meet. This criteria ranges from being representative of a masterpiece of human creative genius to being an example of a traditional human settlement which is representative of a culture. A full list of criteria can be found online.
Horn said Jamestown Island might have been considered between a number of those categories.
During the process, Hall said she and Horn drafted a proposal upon which the U.S. Secretary of the Interior makes the decision for approval, or not, in recommending the site for the next stage.
Documents stating the exact reasons for denial are not immediately available for public viewing, but Horn said there could be a multitude of reasons.
One of which she said may have been a lack of a convincing argument in her and Horn’s submission. One of the purposes of the submission, she added, is to sell reviewers on the idea the location made an impact not just on the United States but globally.
“There’s a whole series of questions you have to explain and express with as much conviction as you can to people who have never, and who might never, step foot here,” she said. “You have to explain as simply as possible why your site is important to the world.”
While the submission was denied in 2016, both Horn and Givens said there could be hope in the future for another submission.
Givens said the submission happened before the foundation started working on signs for English America’s first Africans, which is now observed as part of the 2019 commemoration. He said new discoveries and connections such as that could create a different outcome.
And while there are no current plans to reapply, Hall said she hasn’t given up hope.
“I think we will continue to look and see if we can understand more of our shared history at Jamestown and maybe something we could try again,” she said.
