Palisades

In the spring of 1607, colonists under attack from the Virginia Indians constructed the triangular enclosure of James Fort in just 19 days. John Smith recalled that bearing and planting palisades strained and bruised the men, and continual labor in extreme heat weakened them. Archaeologists identified the clay-filled original trenches dug for setting the posts and the dark soil stains of the timber posts. The projected measurements of the walls precisely match a 1610 description by Secretary of the Colony William Strachey, who wrote that the east and west palisade walls were each 100 yards long, while the south palisade was 140 yards. Half of the south palisade along the edge of the river was lost to shoreline erosion.

Virginia · United States