Church at Jamestown to be excavated

The original 1639 church tower, at the site where excavations will take place.

Archaeologists currently at work at the site of Jamestown, Virginia, the earliest successful English settlement in the Americas, plan to begin excavations at the spot of the 1907 Memorial Church on Jamestown Island. According to a recent published news update, beginning in the summer of 2016 they plan to excavate into the floor of the church in sections while keeping the historic church site open to visitors. The efforts will include an investigation into the remains of the 1617 church where English colonial America’s first representative government met in 1619.

The excavations at Jamestown are best known for the rediscovery of the remains of the 1607 James Fort by William Kelso in the mid-1990’s. Since then, archaeologists have recovered more than 2 million artifacts and thousands of features that evidence the remains of various structures, particularly those associated with the original 1607 James Fort. The findings testify to the successful establishment and growth of a key English colony and the place where the first English colonial government had its birth.

Source/pics: popular-archaeology.com/issue/winter-2015-2016/article/early-17th-century-church-at-jamestown-to-be-excavated