THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090024
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
IT WAS ABOUT four years ago that I listened in Floyd Painter's den as he recalled finding the skeleton of the Great King of Great Neck - an Indian chief buried for about 2,500 years.
He reached for an old red bandana to brush dust from his field notes taken during the summer of 1979.
Painter pointed to grid lines on his note paper to a square numbered B-14. There, not far from Long Creek Canal in Virginia Beach, Painter and his helpers found what was then the richest pre-Columbian burial site to be found in the mid-Atlantic states.
The king's skeleton had been ornamented with 31,000 shell beads. The tiny beads, each smaller than a match head, were used as money by the Indians, who called them ``wampum peake.'' Each bead had been drilled with a flint and polished, a laborious task that would have taken about an hour for each shell.
Strands of the beads have been on display for sometime now in the Virginia Marine Science Museum, along with other items - either collected by Painter or constructed under his supervision - which depict the life of local Indians living many centuries ago. They include beads, pottery pieces, projectile points and an example of a long house (a dwelling favored by local Indians made of cord grass and sticks).
Last week, the museum added a special exhibit that commemorates Painter with photos, artifacts and text. It is called ``Floyd Painter's Legacy: The Chesapeack Indians Revealed.'' The exhibit focuses on the archaeologist's digs - over a span of 30 years - at a site on the Lynnhaven River inhabited by Chesapeacks, a tribe of Native Americans who were massacred by Powhatan Indians.
The museum's permanent exhibit is a fitting tribute to Painter, who died last year. No archaeologist in Hampton Roads has done more to make us aware of the historical treasures to be found - often literally beneath our shoe soles - than Painter. And few in the country have uncovered as many impressive artifacts.
Born in Illinois, the self-taught archaeologist made Norfolk his home in the 1950s. He had an uncanny ability to unearth treasures while probing around the countryside with his pointed walking stick while wearing a cowboy hat. In 1954, while excavating a site near Jamestown, he uncovered an 8-pound siege helmet, which dated between 1600 and 1640. It was the first such intact helmet found in the New World and can be seen at the Jamestown Island Visitors Center of the National Park Service.
Painter's remarkable knack for finding treasures that eluded archaeologists with advanced degrees, is evident in another exhibit - at the Francis Land House - in Virginia Beach.
The exhibit, which opened in October, is titled ``An Old World in a New Land: Early English Setters in Virginia Beach.'' The items on display include ceramic serving pieces, tobacco pipe fragments, pins, a thimble, hoe blades, a needle case, a bone comb, a sword hilt and an Apostle's spoon. They represent the earliest evidence of white civilization in Virginia Beach and are believed to be the earliest traces of European culture to be found in Virginia south of the James River.
Painter recovered the items in the 1950s while digging for sites of Indian occupation in the Lake Joyce area of Virginia Beach. In Baylake Pines, the archaeologist found the brick foundation of an old house that appeared to have been destroyed by fire. At the site, he uncovered weapons, armor, tools, glass, ornaments and even a small brick kiln. Painter believed that he had found the foundation and many contents of the Grand Manor House of Adam Thoroughgood, who arrived in Virginia in 1626 and owned a land grant that included property at the excavation site.
But he wasn't sure. Thoroughgood is certainly the likely owner, for surviving records indicate he was the only prominent - and wealthy - person known to have been living in that area during the 1600s.
Mark Reed, the administrator of the Francis Land House, says 50 items from the Baylake Pines site can be seen by the public through February 1995 - all on loan from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
``All of the items are from 1625 to 1650,'' Reed said, ``although some may possibly be a little earlier. . . . The displayed artifacts indicate that this family of English colonists was relatively wealthy compared to the average Virginian during the first half of the 17th century.''
Floyd Painter, a man of limitless curiosity, lived in modest circumstances all his life. He left Hampton Roads a legacy beyond price. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Motoya Nakamura, Staff
A Native American exhibit at the Virginia Marine Science Museum
honors archaeologist Floyd Painter.
by CNB