JAMESTOWN — Archaeological sites at Historic Jamestowne continue to be under threat from existential sea level rise as archaeologists scramble to save the area’s untold histories.
Labeled as one of the United States’ 11 most endangered historic sites by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2022, Historic Jamestowne’s archaeologists and researchers are now working to preserve dig sites as climate-related challenges threaten to wipe away centuries of history at the 400-year old site.
According to the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, it is essential that resilience strategies are implemented within the next 50 to 75 years as stormwater, sea level rise and encroaching wetlands create increasingly hazardous conditions at North America’s first permanent English colony.
“The complete story of Jamestown is yet to be discovered. If action is not taken immediately, untold stories of the origins of the United States may be lost forever,” the foundation’s resilience plan states.
Recently, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the foundation’s Save Jamestown campaign with one of four grants from its Climate Smart Humanities Organizations program. The $300,000 grant, matched by funding from donors and other organizations, will support assessments and permitting costs for new mitigation strategies.
So far, five resilience strategies have been recommended to protect Jamestown, including repairing the seawall, building more berms, improving drainage, elevating roads and lifting building floors by 3 feet. In 2022, a seawall repair project added 96,000 tons of granite to the seawall.
Currently, the staff must pump water out of dig sites and line them with heavy sandbags after heavy rain and flooding. According to the resilience plan, this process is “intensive, time-consuming, and threatens to destroy potential discoveries.”
With 3 feet of sea level rise predicted in Jamestown by 2075, archaeologists are racing to excavate vulnerable areas with particularly important cultural and historical significance, an expedited process that Michael A. Lavin, director of collections and conservation, and grants administrator Emilia Robertson call “rescue archaeology.”
“There are lives of Indigenous and African peoples here that you don’t get anywhere else, unless we can get it out of the ground before it is washed away,” Robertson said. “All of this permitting, it’s not just about making sure we stay above water; it’s about literally reclaiming lives that have been lost.”
The Jamestown site has experienced over a dozen flooding events this year, with water originating from Kingsmill Creek and the local Pitch and Tar Swamp overtaking roads, pathways and dig sites. Within the last 75 years, over 10 acres of new wetlands have also surfaced on the property. While staff emphasize the need for wetland preservation, they also describe an urgent need to make sure historic sites are not threatened by increasing water levels.
“We have a lot of institutional memory,” senior staff archaeologist Sean Romo said. “All of us who’ve been here for quite a while are seeing how much the landscape has changed even just in my career here at Jamestown.”
According to senior staff archaeologist Mary Anna R. Hartley, many of the threatened dig sites also contain evidence of burials, unknown structures and agricultural labor. These specific artifacts could provide insight into the lives of Indigenous tribes who occupied the area for 12,000 years prior to European colonization as well as enslaved individuals and English colonizers who arrived in Jamestown during the 17th century.
All of it could be lost if burial sites constantly become inundated due to rising groundwater levels, archaeologists say.
One archaeological area near wetlands across from the Memorial Church provides substantial evidence of the impacts of flooding, as the walls of the site have eroded due to encroaching water and vegetation. Hartley and Romo also pointed out the lack of differentiation between soil layers, providing an example of how oversaturation of the soil can erase important environmental and historical markers.
The water can also set back work. Within three hours of a tidal event or major rainstorm, dig sites and roads can be completely submerged on the property, Hartley said. Once flooded, archaeologists may have to wait weeks before they can reexcavate the area.
One of the goals of the resilience project is to build a 6.5-foot berm wall along the eastern property line Historic Jamestowne shares with the National Park Service. Staff also hope to open a future Resiliency and Discovery Center on the property in order to educate visitors about environmental challenges and impacts on Jamestown Island. The new center would work in conjunction with the nearby park service visitor center.
“Water knows no property boundaries,” Lavin said. “When we’re dealing with a mitigation issue, we have to involve our neighbors because its our water and their water.”
Robertson anticipates that the grant will provide ample support as Historic Jamestowne prepares to conduct research and embark on the permitting process for future climate-focused solutions. Because the NEH grant has only existed for two years, she hopes that Jamestown’s efforts will highlight the importance of federal funding and provide an opportunity for Save Jamestown to reapply in two years.
For more on the Save Jamestown efforts or to make a donation to mitigate the impact of climate change, visit historicjamestowne.org/savejamestown.
Emma Henry, [email protected]
