At the James Fort site we've found over two million artifacts
and one of the most common finds would be animal bones
and most of those would be food remains
of the things that colonists were eating
during the early years at Jamestown.
Now occasionally we'll come across an animal bone
that has been altered to serve another purpose,
such as a tool.
And one of the more unusual animal bones we've found
have been those of an extinct mammal species: the eastern elk.
It went extinct in the late 19th century due to overhunting.
It was historically ranging along the Appalachian chain,
so it would have been in the Piedmont of Virginia
at the time the colonists first first arrived at Jamestown.
And the eastern elk is or was very similar to its cousin the western elk
that we still have today in the American Rockies.
However, interestingly, the eastern elk was a larger elk species.
Now at the James Fort site, we have three distinct artifacts
that were made out of elk remains.
The first one I'm going to show you, perhaps the most exciting,
is this fragment of an elk antler.
Now when we first found it we thought it could be a white-tailed deer
but upon further examination it looked a little large.
We've had some experts look at it,
who have decided that this is an eastern elk antler fragment.
And what the colonists did with this
was they bored two holes through the antler right here.
One of the two holes still has an iron nail in it.
And they kind of planed this section here flat
so it could adhere flush to some kind of surface, probably a wall,
so that this portion of the antler could serve as a hook.
And perhaps they had another one just like this on the wall
and with two you could mount an artifact, an object like a musket.
This elk antler was found
—actually by the guy who just walked by me—
by Don Warmke back in 2009 in John Smith's well.
And it was a well that went bad due to salt water contamination.
And the colonists filled it in when they cleaned up the fort
after the horrible starving time winter of 1609 to 1610.
After that winter the new governor arrived
and he had the fort "cleansed," or cleaned up,
and that's when this elk antler would have been thrown away
and so it was mid June 1610.
Now, in the same pit we also found a bone needle
that had been manufactured from an elk ulna we believe.
And this would have been a Virginia Indian tool used for net making,
net repair, weaving baskets, or working with clothing.
And so the actual object
—I don't have it with me right now—
it is in our museum, the Archaearium, in the World of Pocahontas exhibit.
The third and final elk-related artifact we have
is also in our archaeological museum
but right here I have a 3D print
that was done by Bernard Means at Virginia Commonwealth University.
He scanned the original object
so this is a one-to-one ratio model of that object.
And it is a fleshing tool that Virginia Indians would have used
to remove the flesh, and/or actually the fur from, from a hide.
So this tool is called a flesher that was made from a metatarsal of an elk
and this was found in a cellar very close to the well
where the other two elk-related artifacts were found.
And this cellar had initially served as a kitchen for the colonists
but it too was abandoned around the same time as that well
and filled in during the cleanup phase led by the governor Lord De La Warr.
So in addition to these few modified elk bones that were Virginia Indian artifacts
we have tens of thousands of fragments of Native pottery from this period,
as well as thousands and thousands of purple mussel shell,
our freshwater mussel shell beads in various stages of manufacture.
We even find the the stone drill bits
that were used to bore holes through those shell beads
so we believe strongly that Virginian women were in the fort
prior to that starving time winter
when we kind of move into the first Anglo-Powhatan War.
And there wouldn't be Virginia Indians living in the fort anymore
during that, during that war period.
So in addition to the eastern elk,
there is another large mammal species that is not extinct
but it's no longer anywhere east of the Mississippi
at least in its natural habitat,
and that is the American bison.
And one of the early Jamestown colonists, Captain Argall,
came across bison up in the
—above the fall line way up along the Rappahannock River
into the end of the mountains back in the 1610's.
We've never found any remains of a bison here at James Fort
but since we've been finding the elk remains,
you know, anything is possible.
A lot of these goods were moving through trade networks
between Virginia Indian peoples
and finding their way here into Tidewater Virginia.
So for today's update I've been standing in our Vault,
which is where we house most of the artifacts
that have come out of the James Fort site.
Think of it as a library if you will for the collections.
And it is here that our curatorial staff works with the collections,
researches them, catalogues them, etc.
And our conservators work in this space as well.
And you can actually visit this space through our curatorial tour
which is seasonal between April and up until the early fall.
And the curatorial tour is offered every other Wednesday.
To learn more and find out how you can visit us here in this room
visit us at historicjamestowne.org.
And there's an "e" at the end of "Jamestowne."
And I'll add the link to the curatorial tours
in the notes section of the video.