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Four hundred years ago, at the end of 1606, three ships set sail from what is now Virginia Quay in London. Five months later, on 14 May 1607, the 105 men on board the Discovery, Godspeed and Susan Constant arrived at the site on the east coast of America where they would establish the first permanent English settlement on that continent. They named it Jamestowne, after James I, who was king of England at the time.
Thirteen years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth in the Mayflower, the Jamestown settlers were building a fort, church and houses on an island on the James river. They were to lose some of their number in clashes with native Indians and many more due to disease, largely caused by unhygienic water supplies. Twenty-five of them died in just four weeks and almost half of the original colonists were dead by the end of the settlement's first summer.
Persevere and prosper
But those who survived persevered and eventually prospered. Despite various setbacks, by 1619 the colony was well enough established to set up the first representative assembly of settlers in what was to become the United States. The new crop of Virginian tobacco provided the basis for growing economic prosperity, and Jamestown became the capital of the expanding colony of Virginia.
In 1698, however, a fire devastated its government buildings and the Virginian capital was moved to Williamsburg. The original site of Jamestown, including its fort, church and other buildings, were abandoned and fell into decay. The modern town of Jamestown is located a couple of miles away.
For many years it was thought that nothing remained of the original settlement, and that the fort and other structures had been lost to the river. A tourist-oriented reconstruction of how the settlement might have looked was built, but little attention was paid to the archaeology of the site.
Jamestown rediscovered
Some archaeologists, however, were convinced that they could locate remains of old Jamestown. Among them was Bill Kelso, who had nurtured a lifelong interest in finding the place where America was born.
In 1994 he got his chance, when the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the US National Parks Service, who jointly administer the site, set up an archaeological project to see what could be found out about old Jamestown. With the 400th anniversary of the settlement – and of America's birth – in mind, this long-running project has unearthed a huge amount of material. Not only were Bill Kelso and his colleagues able to locate the settlement, and demonstrate that it had not, after all, been submerged by the river, but they have turned up something like one million artefacts relating to the early settlers.
Stunning finds
As Time Team discovered while filming this special, some of the finds have been stunning. For example, the waterlogged conditions at the foot of a large well have yielded some perfectly preserved finds from the early years of the settlement. Those discovered while Time Team was present include a young child's leather slipper, a halberd (a large axe blade and spike mounted on a long wooden shaft) and a hammer.
Unusually for an archaeological investigation, the extensive written records relating to the Jamestown settlers mean that it is possible to put names to the people who lived and died here – and in some cases even to link particular finds to particular individuals. Some of those links are purely speculative; others are based on solid evidence. In this programme, Time Team helps to bring alive the personal stories behind the birthplace of America.
Watched the programme? Explored the website? Followed the links? Know all there is to know about Jamestown? How about the Native Americans who the Jamestown settlers encountered? Try our quick quiz to see how you get on.
Who was the father of the famous Native American 'princess' Pocahontas?
Accopatough
Rawhunt
Powhatan
What language did the tribe of Pocahontas speak?
Algonquian
Siouan
Iroquoian
Which of these borrowed words do some linguists believe came into English from the Algonquian language?
Pow wow
Caucus
Wigwam
How many US states have names that were borrowed from Native American languages?
Eight
18
28
Corn, pole beans and squash were grown together by the Native Americans, with the beans growing up the corn stalks and the squash below. By what phrase did they refer to these three staples of their diet?
Three sisters
Three brothers
Three children
In 1607, Powhatan was ruler over around 14,000 Native Americans from some 30 tribes. Today there are seven surviving Powhatan tribes. What is the total Powhatan population?
950
9,500
95,000
Answers here.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
A wide range of books are being published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown. This selection includes those focusing on the recent archaeological investigations.
Jamestown Rediscovery 1994-2004 by William M Kelso with Beverly A Straube (APVA Preservation Virginia, 2004) $19.95 ISBN: 0917565134
Jamestown Rediscovery 1994-2004 is the eighth in a series of updates on the historical and archaeological research known as APVA Jamestown Rediscovery. This volume provides a synopsis of the previous three seasons of excavation and a summary of what went on before.
Jamestown, The Buried Truth by William M Kelso (University of Virginia Press, 2006) £18.50
In Jamestown, The Buried Truth, William Kelso takes us literally to the soil where the Jamestown colony began, unearthing the James Fort and its contents to reveal fascinating evidence of the lives and deaths of the first settlers, their endeavours and struggles, and their relationships with the Virginia Indians. He offers a lively but fact-based account, framed around a narrative of the archaeological team's exciting discoveries.
Get this book
The Jamestown Project by Karen Ordahl Kupperman (Belknap Press, 2007) £15.53
Reconfiguring the national myth of Jamestown's failure, Karen Kupperman shows how the settlement's distinctly messy first decade actually represents a period of ferment in which individuals were learning how to make a colony work. Indeed, the structures and practices that evolved through trial and error in Virginia would become the model for all successful English colonies, including Plymouth. Capturing the stark reality of Jamestown - for Indians and Europeans alike - through the words of its inhabitants as well as archaeological and environmental evidence, Kupperman re-creates these formative years with astonishing detail.
Get this book
A Savage Kingdom: Virginia and the founding of English America by Benjamin Woolley (HarperPress, 2007) £25
Retitled Savage Kingdom: The true story of Jamestown, 1607, and the settlement of America for the US market, this book tells the story of Jamestown through the personal experiences of the individuals who founded it.
Get this book
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Historic Jamestowne
www.historicjamestowne.org/index.php
Historic Jamestowne is a partnership between the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the US National Parks Service to administer the site of the first permanent English settlement in America. Its extensive website contains detailed accounts of the archaeological investigations that have taken place here since 1994. It includes dig reports, updates, featured finds and information about the experimental archaeology carried out here.
Jamestown 1607
www.jamestown1607.org
The Virginia Tourism Corporation's website, Jamestown 1607, set up to mark 'America's 400th anniversary' contains a wealth of material about the settlement and early American history. It begins by telling the stories of two dozen individuals associated with the colony, including those of native Virginian Indians such as Chief Accopatough, who signed the original agreement to give land to the settlers. The website contains a lot more than is immediately apparent, and it is worth exploring the links under Visit Jamestown.
The Road to Jamestown
http://theroadtojamestown.co.uk
This website focuses on the 'real story' of the Smythe family – 'popular entrepreneurs, businessmen and high financiers of voyages of discovery' – without whom Jamestown would never have existed.
Virginia Council on Indians
http://indians.vipnet.org/resources.cfm
Follow the various links on the Virginia Council on Indians website to get an American Indian perspective on the Jamestown colony, Virginia and the Virginian Indians.
Who was the father of the famous Native American 'princess' Pocahontas?
Powhatan
What language did the tribe of Pocahontas speak?
Algonquian
Which of these borrowed words do some linguists believe came into English from the Algonquian language?
Caucus
How many US states have names that were borrowed from Native American languages?
28
Corn, pole beans and squash were grown together by the Native Americans, with the beans growing up the corn stalks and the squash below. By what phrase did they refer to these three staples of their diet?
Three sisters
In 1607, Powhatan was ruler over around 14,000 Native Americans from some 30 tribes. Today there are seven surviving Powhatan tribes. What is the total Powhatan population?
9,500