Though I'm not sure why (given the records of the time), but there's been a long-standing common view of the Jamestown colonists that may be in for some revision:
Jamestown seeds reflect survival efforts - Yahoo! News Quote:
NORFOLK, Virginia - Seeds and plant remains preserved in a well at America's first permanent English settlement suggest the Jamestown colonists were not just gentlemen with few wilderness survival skills, as they are often portrayed, but tried to live off the land by gathering berries and nuts.
At least one tobacco seed, possibly representing the earliest known evidence of the cultivation at Jamestown of the cash crop that helped the settlement survive financially, was also discovered among samples from the 17th-century well.
Archaeobotanist Steve Archer will include results of his microscopic analysis of the plant matter in presentations at the Society of Historical Archaeology conference that begins Wednesday in Williamsburg.
Jamestown was founded as a business venture in May 1607, with settlers encountering harsh conditions including severe drought, famine and disease. An 18-month series of events commemorating the settlement's 400th anniversary is under way.
Colonists built the 6-foot-square (0.56 sq. meters), 15-foot-deep (4.5-meter) well after 1610 in a corner of Jamestown's triangular fort. When it no longer was used for water, settlers filled the well with trash and then built an addition to the governor's house over it in 1617, sealing everything inside until archaeologists began excavating it in 2005.
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The story is from AP, by Sonja Barisic, titled "Jamestown seeds reflect survival efforts", and is datelined Tues., Jan. 9.
10th January 2007, 09:31 AM
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