What was life really like for the band of adventurers who first set
foot on the banks of the James River in 1607? Important as the
accomplishments of these men and women were, the written records
pertaining to them are scarce, ambiguous, and often conflicting. In
Jamestown, the Truth Revealed, William Kelso takes us literally to
the soil where the Jamestown colony began, unearthing footprints of
a series of structures, beginning with the James Fort, to reveal
fascinating evidence of the lives and deaths of the first settlers,
of their endeavors and struggles, and new insight into their
relationships with the Virginia Indians. He offers up a lively but
fact-based account, framed around a narrative of the archaeological
team's exciting discoveries. Unpersuaded by the common assumption
that James Fort had long ago been washed away by the James River,
William Kelso and his collaborators estimated the likely site for
the fort and began to unearth its extensive remains, including
palisade walls, bulwarks, interior buildings, a well, a warehouse,
and several pits. By Jamestown's quadricentennial over 2 million
objects were cataloged, more than half dating to the time of Queen
Elizabeth and King James. Kelso's work has continued with recent
excavations of numerous additional buildings, including the
settlement's first church, which served as the burial place of four
Jamestown leaders, the governor's rowhouse during the term of
Samuel Argall, and substantial dump sites, which are troves for
archaeologists. He also recounts how researchers confirmed the
practice of survival cannibalism in the colony following the
recovery from an abandoned cellar bakery of the cleaver-scarred
remains of a young English girl. CT scanning and computer graphics
have even allowed researchers to put a face on this victim of the
brutal winter of 1609-10, a period that has come to be known as the
""starving time."" Refuting the now decades-old stereotype that
attributed the high mortality rate of the Jamestown settlers to
their laziness and ineptitude, Jamestown, the Truth Revealed
produces a vivid picture of the settlement that is far more
complex, incorporating the most recent archaeology and using
twenty-first-century technology to give Jamestown its rightful
place in history, thereby contributing to a broader understanding
of the transatlantic world.
General
Imprint: |
University of Virginia Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
July 2018 |
Authors: |
William M. Kelso
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 165mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
296 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8139-4210-0 |
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
Archaeology >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8139-4210-1 |
Barcode: |
9780813942100 |
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