Evening star., 1936-05-02
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS K. HENRY.

Fortunately. the jamestown colonists
were hard drinkers.
Fortunately, that is, for the National
Park Service archeologists who are sift-
ing the soil of the site of the earliest
English colony In North America in a
search for clues which will enable them
to reconstruct a picture of the ancient
town.
Men achieve immortality in strange
and unsuspected ways. Take, for ex-
ample, a certain Henry Harlow, a
jamestown worthy of the seventeenth
century, distinguished citizen and prop
erty owner. He may have done many
worthy things in his lifetime-but all
that really matters 300 years later is
that he had well-Stocked cellar and
carelessly threw away the lead seals on
his brandy bottles when he and his
friends gathered for a gay evening.
These seals, according to the custom
Of the day, were stamped with the
bibulous Mr.. Harlow's initials to indicate
his private stock. A large number Of
these "HH" seals were sifted out of the
soil at one spot. Harlow is the only
person mentioned in the Jamestown land
records in the Library of Congress with
those initials. Presumably he kept his
brandy in his own house and threw the
seals out Of the window when the bottles
were opened. This spot, then, it can be
assumed, must have been the site of his
house. This enables the Psychologists
to check definite spot from which to
proceed, by means Of the land records,
to reconstruct map Of the old town.
Similarly, the sites Of other houses on
jamestown Island can be located by the
initials Of their owners on brandy bottle
seals.
The Jamestown bon vivants also had
finely made goblets and wine glasses,
which they frequently dropped and broke
in the course of their carousals. The
fragments were tossed away and afford
collateral evidence of house sites. One
Of the finest specimens yet found by the
National Park Service archeologiSts Is
a very delicate gin bottle. Every frag-
ment was located and matched after
three centuries in the rubbish heap.
After all, it was explained by B. Floyd
Flickinger, superintendent of the Colo
nial National Monument, including
jamestown and Yorktown, to the An
thropological Society of Washington the
other night, very little is actually known
or can be learned from documentary
sources concerning the way of life OF
these old English colonists. When the
National Park Service workers went on
the island two years ago they found only
a swampy tract rapidly being eaten away
by the waters of the James River. There
was very little above ground to indicate
that men ever had lived there. The
contemporary literature on jamestown
was very scanty-the inhabitants pre-
ferring to spend their evenings over the
bottle rather than to write letters.
The only recourse, Mr.. Flickinger ex-
planned, was to the pick and shovel and
the scientific methods Of the archeologist
usually applied on sites on which there
Is no historic record. As o result
good deal more is known. in some ways,
Of the manner Of life Of some pre-Co-
lumhian Indians than Of our own
ancestors. Such clues rs brandy bottle
seals, buttons. goblets. etc, lead to in
tenSive studies OF such articles In con-
temporary literature.
The National Park Service In not
planning 10 sscoustract Jamestown. -