A Site of Habitation

Thousands of years ago, when the island was larger and drier, Jamestown was more suitable for permanent habitation. Archaeologists have excavated hearths from two-thousand-year-old campsites, and nearby they found pottery and evidence of stone tool-making. Soil core samples recovered by geologists revealed buried cornfields cultivated by American Indians long before the English arrived. By 1607, however, the local Paspahegh hunted and fished there but did not occupy the island. When the colonists arrived, they assumed the island was unoccupied, one of the prerequisites for the location of their settlement, without realizing that the land was still in use.

Virginia · United States