The human history of Jamestown Island began long before 1607, when the first native inhabitants walked this site 10,000 years ago as the James River flowed nearly 100 feet lower through a narrow ravine. As sea levels gradually rose, the site flooded into a brackish marsh, and native hunting and fishing parties from nearby towns visited the island. Fire-cracked rock, native pottery sherds, oyster shell, stone tools, and projectile points found along the river’s edge suggest it served as a campsite during the Late Woodland period, 1,000-400 years ago. Although the island appeared uninhabited when the colonists arrived, it lay within the territory of the Paspahegh tribe, part of the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. In 1610, Jamestown colonists attacked and destroyed the principal Paspahegh community six miles upriver, and surviving Paspahegh left their homes to live elsewhere, possibly with other tribes.
