Jeremy has complained a few times about waking up cold. I think I began to see why this morning when we got up...we had to rouse an hour earlier than usual, in order to get to both Jamestown and Yorktown in one day, as well as make the drive to Rockville.
We started in Jamestown. There are two sites, this actual Jamestown site run by the US Park Service and a mockup run by Virginia. The mockup was first devised because the prevailing wisdom was that the original colony was washed into the sea, a victim of erosion. Because of this, Virginia commissioned the mockup. One archaeologist, Mr. Kelso, dared to disagree with his colleagues, and from the first dig, began finding artifacts and soon unearthed the original fort.
The hole in this picture is a well, which has yielded over 50,000 artifacts. They say wells are some of the most productive areas of a dig, because after they are dry, they are a ready-made trash pit. One man's garbage really is another man's treasure!
I thought a lot about my sister-in-law Laura and her fondness for archaeology. There were many William and Mary students working, and they were very willing to share with us what they were doing.
This guy showed us the artifacts they turned up just from sifting some of the dirt scraped off during the last hour.
Most trees were not very old, but this White Mulberry was an exception. The trunk was about four feet in diameter, and it seemed likely the tree was planted prior to 1750, when the entire colony was finally vacated to more habitable places such as Williamsburg and Richmond.
From Jamestown, we moved to Yorktown. This place really captured Ian and Jeremy's imagination, with the demarcation of troop positions around the battlefield and the stories of strategy and the manner in which Redoubts 9 and 10 were taken at night, one by the French forces, one by the Americans.
Of course, there were lots of cannons. Ian told what each cannon was before we took the guided tour with a park ranger.
We took this picture of the Yorktown monument, commissioned by congress in 1781 but not built until 1884--talk about slow wheels of government! The statue of Liberty was severely damaged by lightning in 1956 and replaced.
Thomas Nelson was a merchant and member of the House of Burgesses, as well as a signer of the declaration of independence. His house was fired upon during the Yorktown battle, and four cannonballs remain lodged in its brick walls. One is shown here.
From here, we headed to "Victory," another Williamsburg mockup of Yorktown. There we were told we had been issued the wrong passes and could not enter without paying. We declined, having seen the real thing, and returned to Williamsburg, where we got an $87 refund!
So we hit the road for Maryland. We were saddened but relieved to hear about the Metro trainwreck that killed at least 6 people in DC tonight. We will be taking the metro every day, starting tomorrow.
