Hello all!
So I have decided to write a great little blog about something that has come up in the news lately that much attention should be drawn too. Now to some people, this may not sound like the most exciting news in the world but I think it is pretty awesome. And this is a little history piece so for those of you who do not like history that much, this will not be the most interesting thing in the world for you. I will just cut to the chase and tell you; there has been a new development in the study of Jamestown and thus the old fort that is coming up to its 400th year anniversary can be studied once again! Do not leave the blog yet because I will explain how interesting this all really is.
Well, for those of you who do not know about Jamestown, this was the first successful English settlement made in the New World. In other words this was the first colony in the United States and thus this is the beginning of our nation, an amazing history to know. This site was on Jamestown Island which is an island off the coast of Virginia. Being that so much time has passed since the fort was made and most of the original fort gone, it was thought by historians and archaeologists that the old fort of Jamestown was either washed away by the James River or eroded away by the sea. They have just recently done some study to find out this is not the case.
By reviewing certain historical documents or primary sources they had found that the fort was not exactly in the location that was once thought. So some archaeologists had done some digging to find out that the actual site of the fort was just buried over for farming and was left completely intact under the ground. The archaeologists had found that about 90 percent of the original fort is actually intact and waiting to be studied. This is honestly huge because before hand to understand the story of Jamestown historians had to rely on some unreliable sources or written accounts. But now there is artifacts and actual evidence to prove the story of Jamestown that has been told and we can not dig even deeper into the story of the first settlement of the US.
Due to their being almost 400 years in between then and now, a lot of the documents had been lost about the early life in Jamestown. But now archaeologists have unearthed over 700,000 artifacts and are about to open a new museum dedicated to the fort and their findings. One of the leading archaeologists is William Kelso who published a book last year about this called Jamestown: the Unburied Truth, and I highly suggest you read the book if this interests you! The museum is expected to see about one million people and thus the story of Jamestown is alive again!
I know that to most people this may not seem like the most exciting news in the world, but it really is a big deal for the US. We will now be able to know even more about the first successful settlement and know our history even more! I really hope that at some point I will be able to go to that museum and really get to know Jamestown instead of just getting all of my information from books, but be able to experience from real artifacts! Also, this December 20th is the 400th anniversary of Jamestown and this should be celebrated accordingly!
Joshua
PS- I just wrote a paper about this and that is why I know all this! See, learning is fun!