Statehouse and Early Burial Ground

Jamestowns last Statehouse, ca. 1663, is located on the western end of the APVA property. The foundations, visible above the ground surface, were first excavated and stabilized in 1903. Excavations in the 1950s by the National park Service found that the 17th century statehouse complex stood on an early burial ground likely dating to the first years of James Fort. Excavations initiated in the summer of 2000 focused on removing previously excavated soil along the statehouse footing to determine construction phases.

Enough records of the statehouse building exist to provide some of its chronology (and therefore, the date of the last burials.) In 1694, a patent granted the land and ruins of three houses located between the "statehouse" and the "country house" to Philip Ludwell. There is no question as to the location of this patent, which is a 1.5 acre lot that lies today among the central part of the massive three-part foundation, just west of the APVA Rediscovery Center (Yeardley House). The eastern end of this complex served as the "statehouse," and it is likely that the "country house" on the west served some governmental function as well. The name "country house" meant that it belonged to the "country" or did at one time, or at least technically was owned by the Colony.

In 1698, the statehouse at Jamestown burned, and the capital moved to Williamsburg the following year. It is likely that the statehouse that burned stood on the APVA foundation. There is no direct record, however, of where the government meeting building or buildings were at the time of the fire. It appears that buildings were not rebuilt on the foundations of the APVA statehouse foundations, even though the James City County Court still functioned at Jamestown until 1715. There is a reference to the removal of bricks from the statehouse ruins at Jamestown to be used for construction in Williamsburg. In any case, while the assembly, council and court were held at various other Jamestown buildings at various times, it is clear that the APVA Ludwell-Statehouse complex served a public governmental function.

The next reference of importance to the complex followed an excavation of the foundations by Col. Samuel Yonge in 1903, recorded in his book, The Site of Old Jamestown, published in 1907. In it, he describes what he found and includes a photo of one of the cellars and a drawing of the foundation he uncovered. It is important to note that based on what he found, he concluded that the building burned, it was built in three stages from west to east, and the eastern section could well match the description of the governmental functions of various spaces recorded in a document signed by "T.M." in 1694. While the excavation was crude by modern standards, this work and his study of erosion and other patents at Jamestown were remarkably thorough and insightful.

Statehouse Excavations

APVA excavations began in summer 2000 to study both the statehouse foundations and an earlier, unmarked burial ground located on the extreme western end of the APVA property. A number of test trenches dug at strategic locations along the foundations provided a chronology proving that the building was built over time from west to east, followed by additions to the north and south. The sequence was clear from inspecting wall junctions, revealing which wall was an addition to a wall already standing.

Excavations within the foundations revealed architectural features such as the arrangements of wooden floor joists and scaffold holes. Despite years of plowing, the 1903 cement capping of the foundations, and extensive prior archaeological investigation, test units within the foundations of H-shaped chimney hearths inside the central foundation also revealed evidence of a fire that destroyed at least the interior of the structure. This testing also recovered roofing materials, suggesting that the easternmost building roof was covered with an interlocking type of ceramic roof shingle known as pan tile, while the buildings to the west had either flat tiles or flat slate shingles.

Burial Study

APVA's decision to study the unmarked burial ground lying beneath the statehouse foundations was predicated on the assumption that systematic recovery and preservation of a statistically valid sample of individual burials would make it possible to construct an early Jamestown population profile, of which there is little or no other record. Over 70 burials were excavated from the unmarked 17th century burial ground in 2000 and 2001, and are currently being studied to learn more about how the settlers lived and died. Many of the graves were under the foundations of the Ludwell Statehouse Complex built in the mid-1600s, so the burial ground is believed to date between 1607 and 1662. The position of the burials raises the possibility that some of them died during the 1609-1610 "starving time."

The recovery of these burials will give a good profile of the early fort population, including gender, ancestry, general health, disease, cause of death, burial customs, and perhaps time of death and social/economic conditions in the Fort area at the time of death. Dr. Ashley McKeown, APVA Jamestown Rediscovery forensic anthropologist, and Dr. Douglas Owsley, forensic osteologist at the Smithsonian Institution are analyzing the skeletal remains. In addition to an examination of the bones, tests will include carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis and DNA testing, if funding is received. This data can be compared to other broader studies of 17th-century burials in the Chesapeake region and provide researchers with the earliest evidence of the Euro-American population in order to measure change over time and across the region.