JAMES CITY, VIRGINIA—This summer’s excavations at Jamestown will focus on the search for stains that may have been left by outlying palisades, the bases of temporary soldiers’ tents, structures, wells, and cultivated fields. “We’re getting a pretty good idea that this triangular fort—which is only about an acre—was the heart of a much bigger place. It was the stronghold—the keep of the castle,” Jamestown Rediscovery director William M. Kelso told The Daily Press. Captain John Smith wrote that acres of land had been planted after the settlers’ arrival in 1607, and tall grasses were cleared to improve visibility and security, but much of the seventeenth-century site was probably destroyed during the construction of Civil War earthworks. And yet, last summer, Kelso’s team found traces of a furrowed field outside the original triangle of the fort. “An encampment doesn’t necessarily leave you with a lot of evidence that can be found—but we’ve really just started looking,” added archaeologist Danny Schmidt.
