Evening star., 1937-12-05
By Flora G.. Orr.
v YASHIN0TONIANS ha,

\A/ long known that nearby
wv Virginia is full Of historic
cal interest and signifi-
canoe, but that it contains sites for
archaeological excavations and re-
search Is something Of new concep-
ton.
In fact it is customary to think of
excavations In connection with pre-
historic research, rather than as an
aid to the better understanding of
early American Colonial days dating
back only 800 years or 30. Extensive
digging and collection of artifacts,
however, has been carried on by the
National Park Service with the aid
Of c. c. c. labor in and around
Fredericksburg. jamestown Island and
Yorktown, with results today which
are fascinating as well as enlighten-
ing In connection with our forefathers'
lives on this continent.
Visitors to restored williamsburg
usually take the short runs to York
town and jamestown Island to round
out their tours. At Jamestown-that
early, swampy, unhealthful location
where Capt John Smith and his COM
patriots lived through such hardships
in 1907 and the years Immediately fol-
lowing-tourists are now enabled to
view in the little museum there many
of the objects found by the careful
excavations which have been con-
Quoted there. They are not permitted
to approach the digs themselves, and
some of those which have now been
carefully explored are again covered
with sod in order to preserve them for
posterity.
1t can, however, be stated that the
original foundations and cellars of
many Of Capt. John Smiths con-
temporaries have been found and
identified Within them the thou
sands of fragments of glass. pottery,
iron and other metals have told stories
which will have their bearing on the
study of history in the future.
Capt John Smith himself reported
something of the drinking habits of
these early settlers. and from the
great variety Of bottles found it Is
obvious he did not exaggerate. Bore
dom and lack of initiative in sinking
wells for drinking water made the
importation Of wines and hard liquors
almost necessity. The bottles found
vary from those Of the Sack type
globular with high, tapering neck
which copoo into rr,r,rooy, ,,en d,,r3no
the early Stuart period to the later
squatty types with short necks and
wide bases.
THE date of the destruction Of one
house has been conclusively es-
established as 1876 (when Nathaniel
Bacon set fire to Jamestown) because
of the date Of the manufacture Of
the bottles found in = cache In the
basement floor. A great collection
OF interesting glass bottle seals-some
indicating the family for which the
liquor was made-is now on display
at Jamestown. These seals were made
by stamping molten glass applied to
cooling bottles.
At historic Yorktown, most famous
because the English general Corn
wallis there surrendered to Gen.
George Washington, the excavations
have proceeded on the sites OF the
old William Reynolds house and
Swami Tavern, probably destroyed by
explosions in 1862, during the Civil
War. Delicate-stemmed wine glasses,
iridescent glass bottles, ink wells,
china plates, pottery, stoneware, but
tons from soldiers uniforms, gilded
officers shoulder straps, and many
other valuable items have been found.
One interesting piece was = Gray
beard jug. found in fragments behind
Swami Tavern. This salt-glazed
stoneware was product Of Freschen,
near Cologne, Germany, about 1900
The identifying mask and beard at
the neck gave these jugs their name
One of the uniform buttons bore
the figure a." which identified it
as from a uniform of the Regiment of
Soissonnais from France. Hundreds
of clay-wig curriers' were unearthed,
many in such good condition as to
indicate that Mr.. Reynolds, q pros
porous merchant, had never sold
them. There were cask taps of metal,
tableware, knives and forks with pis-
tol handles, silver spoon with q rat
tail handle, bearing the initials "E p"