CSpan Highlights America’s Most Important Archaeological Site

CSpan marked the 405^th anniversary of the landing and founding of Jamestown with a two-hour May 12 telecast on CSpan3 that would be of special value to anyone planning to visit the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

The two-part program offers important insights into new evidence that belies many long-held popular historical misinterpretations about our earliest colonial ancestors. It included a one-hour lecture tour of the Jamestown Rediscovery Archaeological Project and its archive collection, plus a rare joint interview with project Director William Kelso and Senior Curator Bly Straube, who answered phoned in and Tweeted questions from viewers.

The program included an example of the “in the trenches” tour of active excavations and explorations that are offered twice a week in the spring and summer, and the Curator’s tour, with examples of its million-plus items. Dr. Kelso interprets the discovery of the first substantial Protestant church in America (where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were wed in 1614).

The hour-long interview segment touched on many topics that included descriptions of the far-flung origins of the artifacts, evidence of the colonists’ loves and work habits, Jamestown’s role in the founding of the British empire, Dr. Kelso’s plan to revise his authoritative book, The Buried Truth and the private, non-profit nature of the project, which receives no state or federal funding.

This program was part of CSpan3’s American Artifacts series on American History TV.