HOME PAGE VIRGINIA VACATIONS FREE "LIFE" LESSONS FREEDOM  GALLERY

 

 

New ARCHAEAREIUM ON HISTORIC JAMESTOWN

(Pronounced ark-ee-air-ee-um - a mating of archeology research and museum technology)

 A1. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine visited the new Archaearium during a preview for the media. He was visibly moved as he viewed some of the 1,000 artifacts from Jamestown, the first permanent English Settlement in America. He quoted Charles Dickens.

  "From the stuff of details life is made."

 

A2. The Archaerium is an innovative $4.9 facility located at Historic Jamestowne, a National Park located at the terminus of the Colonial Parkway.  It was developed by APVA Preservation Virginia as a contribution to the Jamestown 2007 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of America's birth.

 

A3. The building was constructed on top of the site of the 1660 Statehouse and ruins of this earlier building can be seen through glass flooring. Interactive telescopes let visitors view 17th century locations of the original  Fort and surrounding area.

A4. This is an environmentally "green building" clad in copper sheets already being burnished to new colors by the climate.

A5. Iron padlock, probably used on an early settlers chest. Doors were seldom locked.

A6.  Breastplate. Settlers brought armor with them from England to defend themselves against possible attacks by the Spanish. But soon helped ward off American Indian arrows.

A7. Clay pot restored from recovered fragments.

  

    A8.  Mouth harps provided evening entertainment.

 

A9. And possibly provided music to celebrate the arrival of the first women from England in 1619. (Detail from Archaearium wall mural)

A10. Recreation of a well dug in 1620. Oxygen-free mud preserved artifacts dumped in the well.  Position of recovered items indicates dates they were discarded.

  

  A11. Recovered 17th Century wine bottles. One is stamped with the seal of Governor Frances Nicholson.

 

A12.  Mermaids were considered signs of good fortune. This 17th Century copper alloy could be mounted on a chest to hold a small mirror and comb.

A13. Facial reconstruction from skeleton. Only known image of an English woman who settled in early Jamestown

A14.  William Kelso, director of Archeology, led the team that discovered the location of the "lost" original Fort that had been reported as under the James River. He looks as if he's about to lead one of the dancing ladies in the mural behind him, but he is really describing to a visitor the shape of one of the artifacts recovered.

A15. Beverly Straube, APVA senior curator, selected artifacts to be exhibited. She said, "They provide a richer, fairer, more intimate understanding of the beginning of our nation."

All photos © 2006 Hal E. Gieseking
1 All pictures are copyright by the photographers and for sale to the media.

RETURN TO  JAMESTOWN 2007 PORTFOLIO        HOME PAGE OF VIRGINIA HOSPITALITY SUITE

 

 

 

 

 

 

E