the bounty of jamestown 

The search for a richer story about Jamestown, the site of the first successful English settlement in North America, continues inside the Jamestown Rediscovery Research Center where over three-million excavated artifacts and ecofacts are housed. In addition to illustrating documented people and events at Jamestown, the collections help interpret the unwritten past. These lost or discarded items were touched, treasured, traded, used, or broken by the people who helped lay the foundations of America’s birthplace.

The links on this page will provide more information about the archaeological assemblage recovered by Jamestown Rediscovery. Learn where objects were made, how they were used, and what they meant to the people who used them. In the award-winning archaeological museum, the Archaearium, are artifacts that tell the story of 17th-century Jamestown as it moved from a small wooden fortification to a bustling and thriving port. On exhibit in the museum are personal items that belonged to first individuals who risked their lives to travel to Jamestown; artifacts that illustrate interactions between settlers and Virginia Indians; and munitions used during Bacon’s Rebellion to burn the Statehouse in 1676. The Research Resources section features information on collaborations with prominent scientists, historians, and archaeologists whose work has enriched the Jamestown story. The immense artifact collection continues to reveal stories of America’s birthplace and brought the people who once trod these grounds to life, and we welcome you to share in the discoveries.