ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO AP. 1. JAMESTOWN
DATELINE: JAMESTOWN
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE SKELETON, all that's left of one of the first Jamestown Colonists, may offer clues of the struggles of taming a continent.
Archaeologists have removed the skeleton of one of the first English settlers in America from its nearly 400-year-old grave on Jamestown Island.
It took 12 hours Tuesday to lift the skeleton in one piece, surrounded by a half-ton cocoon of crumbling clay.
Archaeologists originally planned to remove the skeleton in several pieces, which would have been relatively easy.
But head archaeologist William Kelso rejected conventional excavation methods in an attempt to retrieve the skeleton undisturbed. This way, researchers can study it in the same position it was in when it was buried.
``There's no more dramatic way to come face to face with what life was like for the people at James Fort,'' Kelso said. ``It just seemed sacrilegious to take this guy apart.''
The skeleton sustained two hairline fractures during the move but otherwise is intact.
Archaeologists unearthed the skeleton earlier this month, one day before announcing they had discovered evidence of the fort built in 1607 by the first permanent English Colonists.
The 5-foot-6 inch skeleton is of a white man who may have died from a musket ball wound to his right leg.
Preparations for the move began two weeks ago. Archaeologists removed sandy clay soil that surrounded the skeleton and used cotton swabs and fine brushes to clean the bones with alcohol and treat them with a hardening agent.
A sleeve made of wood and fabric was used to compress a protective block of soil around the skeleton to keep it from falling apart.
A backhoe dug access trenches Tuesday, and more than a half-dozen archaeologists also dug carefully for several hours with shovels and trowels.
They used a chain saw to cut an 8-inch-deep slab of clay away from the supporting ground, then slid the skeleton and clay onto a makeshift cradle.
The backhoe lifted the cradle from the pit, and the skeleton was taken to a research center near the fort.
Researchers hoped to have the skeleton ready for public display by today.
People will be able to watch through a glass-walled partition as the archaeologists continue to clean and ready the bones for study by a forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution.
Researchers also plan to try to reconstruct the skeleton's face.
``We hope we'll be able to put a face on the almost totally anonymous settlers who came here and founded this country,'' Kelso said.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB