
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 29, 1990                   TAG: 9005290121
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

FORT SITE EXCAVATION TO BEGIN

Archaeologists are preparing to excavate the site of a mysterious fort that could yield important information about early 17th century fortifications and colonial life, the director of the project said.

Nicholas Luccketti of the non-profit Virginia Company Foundation says archaeologists are puzzled by evidence indicating a fort stood at the site in the early 1600s.

"It's really become an extraordinary mystery," Luccketti said.

Luccketti said documents dating to the period contain no records of a fort in the area. "The real puzzle is there isn't supposed to be anybody east of the Nansemond River before the 1630s," Luccketti said.

The dig is located in a wheat field targeted for residential development on Virginia 17 in Suffolk. What started in 1988 as an excavation of a small 17th century dwelling has turned into a major find, Luccketti said.

Workers spent last summer mapping the site and doing preliminary digging. The wood used to make buildings and the walls of the fort have long since decayed, leaving only dark spots in the soil where the posts used to be.

But with the top layer of earth gone, the archaeologists can see the structures clearly outlined in the field. The mapping, now nearly completed, has revealed several buildings and a 200-foot-long fortification.

Artifacts found at the site helped date one of the dwellings as a 1630s farmhouse. Land patents show the area was occupied by that period, so the house is not unusual.

But that dwelling overlaps the fence line of the fort, meaning the fort predates the house. Adding to the mystery is what looks like an even earlier wall that seems tied to the dwellings inside the fort, Luccketti said.

"We've got lots of good questions about this thing," he said.

One theory holds that the earliest structure might be related to a 1611 military expedition of 100 men sent from Jamestown to subdue Indians who had been attacking settlers.

Records indicate the men occupied the area for about two weeks and then abandoned it. But Luccketti said the fort appears to be more permanent than would have necessary for a two-week occupation.

The archaeologists have found ceramic pottery, tools and several tobacco pipes.

by CNB