Looking Back, Moving Forward: Reinterpreting Jamestown through Archaeology, History, Science, and Technology

Since the beginning of the Jamestown Rediscovery project in 1994, archaeologists have established the location of James Fort’s palisades, major buildings, and many significant features. The team has also recovered more than two million artifacts, many from tightly-dated contexts. The project has resulted in important new insights into the settlement’s early years and has cast doubt on many conventional interpretations of Jamestown's history. Even after two decades, archaeologists are still making significant discoveries, not just through the excavation process but also through the application of new methods not imaginable at the project’s start. Re-analysis of the extensive data, new scientific approaches, and cutting-edge technologies are opening new opportunities for re-examining previously-held assumptions and for exploring new questions. This session will present some examples of recent research projects expanding the frontiers of multi-disciplinary archaeology at James Fort and will also examine future directions for recording, presenting, studying, and interpreting the site.