Jamestown Rediscovery Fall Update

If you haven’t kept up with them, Jamestown Rediscovery has published its Fall update on the James Fort Dig. Go to

http://www.historicjamestowne.org/the_dig/

According to the web site, “Digging deeper and deeper into a well near the center of James Fort, the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological team continues to find hundreds of artifacts each day as their excavations give shape to what was probably the fort's first well, built under the direction of Captain John Smith in early 1609.”

There have been some dramatic discoveries earlier this summer. Professor Seth Mallios, former Jamestown Rediscovery archeologist and now chair of San Diego State University’s Anthropology Department, says that he “was just out there on the island …on July 4th.  The dig is still producing amazing stuff.”

The Jamestowne Society’s First California Company

There is nascent interest in Jamestowne in Southern California.

The Jamestowne Society’s First California Company is celebrating its tenth anniversary. It was organized in 1999 and has offered two to three programs each year on Jamestowne and related topics. They have included: Exchange and Violence at Jamestown: Recent Archaeological Insights from the 1607 James Fort Site, by Dr. Seth M. Mallios, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, at San Diego State University; A New World - England's First View of America, by Dr. Peter Mancall, Professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Southern California and the Director of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute; Native Americans that the Jamestowne Settlers Met in 1607; and, Pride, Prejudice, and the Politics of History.

First California Company is one of 36 Companies of the Jamestowne Society (see the link at the bottom of this page). It is composed of members of the Society who are interested in associating with other members in California and participating in events and other activities that it sponsors. Its meetings have alternated between the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.

For more information about First California Company and its programs, go to http://www.jamestownecalifornia.org/. For specific queries, go to the “Contact Us” tab at the web site.

Hobson Woodward Lectures On His Book, "Brave Vessel"

Our post of August 21, 2009 recommended Hobson Woodward’s book on the shipwreck of the Sea Venture, the saving of Jamestown after the Starving Times, and how Shakespeare used William Strachey's account of the shipwreck in writing the Tempest.

Woodward delivered a 55-minute lecture on the book on Cpan2 Books on 9/27 and 28.  In case you missed it, you can view it from CSpan2’s archives at 

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/includes/templates/library/flash_popup.php?pID=288623-1&clipStart=&clipStop=

That archival site also allows you read the transcript of his talk.