The headline "400 year old woman looking for husband" may sound like something from one of those outlandish tabloid newspapers you see at supermarket checkouts. At the Archaearium (pronounced ark-ee-air-ee-um, the extraordinary new archeology museum at Historic Jamestown Island - the site of the birth of modern America in 1607), you'll see a life size forensic restoration from a skeleton of a young woman who came to Jamestown from England early in the 17th century. She was among a small group of women brought to Jamestown to marry the early settlers in the all-male colony and begin to start families and raise children to populate this New World. It is not recorded whether she found a mate, but the odds were certainly in her favor.
The building was constructed on top of the site of the 1660 Statehouse and ruins of this earlier building can be seen through glass flooring. Interactive telescopes let visitors view locations of the original Fort and surrounding area. As you turn the telescope, a monitor above you shows you what buildings existed at those locations early in the 17th century.
The Archaerium was created by the APVA Preservation Virginia at the Historic Jamestowne Island National Park located at the terminus of the Colonial Parkway near Colonial Williamsburg. It opened in September, 2006, the early beginning of the celebration of Jamestown 2007, the 400th year commemoration of the founding of America by English settlers in 1607. This innovative $4.9 million archeology museum contains 1,000 artifacts, a tiny fraction of the total number of weapons, armor, wine bottles,clothing items, skeletons, farming equipment, and household items recovered in and around the recently rediscovered site of the original Jamestown Fort.
Bly Straube, APVA senior curator, selected artifacts to be exhibited. She said, "They provide a richer, fairer, more intimate understanding of the beginning of our nation." Virginia Governor Tim Kaine recently visited the museum and quoted Charles Dickens, "From the stuff of details life is made." That quote is particularly true when you visit the Archaearium because you are walking amidst the details of people who some 400 years ago forged a form of representative government, freedom of speech, and the foundations of modern America.
At the Virginia Hospitality Suite website you will see a pictorial preview of the Archaearium that just opened plus more than 300 Virginia One-Day vacations you can take. The website is currently developing Jamestown 2007 web features on other attractions and events coming to Virginia during America's birthday party.
And you'll meet a 400-year-old woman who may or may not have found her mate.
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More About Hal Gieseking: Visit the Virginia Hospitality Suite for more information about the Archaearium and 300 one day vacations you can take in Virginia (descriptions and directions). Visit www.virginiahospitalitysuite.com |
