What do you think?
Rate this book
Jamestown, the Truth Revealed
What was life really like for the band of adventurers who first set foot on the banks of the James River in 1607? Important as the accomplishments of these men and women were, the written records pertaining to them are scarce, ambiguous, and often conflicting. In Jamestown, the Truth Revealed, William Kelso takes us literally to the soil where the Jamestown colony began, unearthing footprints of a series of structures, beginning with the James Fort, to reveal fascinating evidence of the lives and deaths of the first settlers, of their endeavors and struggles, and new insight into their relationships with the Virginia Indians. He offers up a lively but fact-based account, framed around a narrative of the archaeological team's exciting discoveries.
Unpersuaded by the common assumption that James Fort had long ago been washed away by the James River, William Kelso and his collaborators estimated the likely site for the fort and began to unearth its extensive remains, including palisade walls, bulwarks, interior buildings, a well, a warehouse, and several pits. By Jamestown’s quadricentennial over 2 million objects were cataloged, more than half dating to the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James.
Kelso’s work has continued with recent excavations of numerous additional buildings, including the settlement’s first church, which served as the burial place of four Jamestown leaders, the governor’s rowhouse during the term of Samuel Argall, and substantial dump sites, which are troves for archaeologists. He also recounts how researchers confirmed the practice of survival cannibalism in the colony following the recovery from an abandoned cellar bakery of the cleaver-scarred remains of a young English girl. CT scanning and computer graphics have even allowed researchers to put a face on this victim of the brutal winter of 1609–10, a period that has come to be known as the "starving time."
Refuting the now decades-old stereotype that attributed the high mortality rate of the Jamestown settlers to their laziness and ineptitude, Jamestown, the Truth Revealed produces a vivid picture of the settlement that is far more complex, incorporating the most recent archaeology and using twenty-first-century technology to give Jamestown its rightful place in history, thereby contributing to a broader understanding of the transatlantic world.
Unpersuaded by the common assumption that James Fort had long ago been washed away by the James River, William Kelso and his collaborators estimated the likely site for the fort and began to unearth its extensive remains, including palisade walls, bulwarks, interior buildings, a well, a warehouse, and several pits. By Jamestown’s quadricentennial over 2 million objects were cataloged, more than half dating to the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James.
Kelso’s work has continued with recent excavations of numerous additional buildings, including the settlement’s first church, which served as the burial place of four Jamestown leaders, the governor’s rowhouse during the term of Samuel Argall, and substantial dump sites, which are troves for archaeologists. He also recounts how researchers confirmed the practice of survival cannibalism in the colony following the recovery from an abandoned cellar bakery of the cleaver-scarred remains of a young English girl. CT scanning and computer graphics have even allowed researchers to put a face on this victim of the brutal winter of 1609–10, a period that has come to be known as the "starving time."
Refuting the now decades-old stereotype that attributed the high mortality rate of the Jamestown settlers to their laziness and ineptitude, Jamestown, the Truth Revealed produces a vivid picture of the settlement that is far more complex, incorporating the most recent archaeology and using twenty-first-century technology to give Jamestown its rightful place in history, thereby contributing to a broader understanding of the transatlantic world.
296 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 15, 2017
64 people are currently reading
229 people want to read
About the author
William M. Kelso
22 books5 followersan American archaeologist who directed the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, an organized effort to uncover and preserve artifacts from the Jamestown Colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He is currently the Emeritus Director of Archaeology and Research at the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, having retired in 2021.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 17, 2020
4.5
Two things about this book frustrated me. First of all, less than 100 pages of this book is actually new content. The balance of the book is an abridged portion of his book Buried Truth. I did not realize this until I read the intro - if it is listed elsewhere I missed it. Since I have also read that book I was a bit disappointed that it was so little new content.
The other aspect I wish could have been improved on were the visuals. It would have been helpful to have images labeled a bit better - in the image itself. This was done a bit better in part 2 - the new section but it would’ve been nice to expand on it more. And improving on part 1, the original book, images would have improved my frustration with the old content.
Overall, very interesting book.
Two things about this book frustrated me. First of all, less than 100 pages of this book is actually new content. The balance of the book is an abridged portion of his book Buried Truth. I did not realize this until I read the intro - if it is listed elsewhere I missed it. Since I have also read that book I was a bit disappointed that it was so little new content.
The other aspect I wish could have been improved on were the visuals. It would have been helpful to have images labeled a bit better - in the image itself. This was done a bit better in part 2 - the new section but it would’ve been nice to expand on it more. And improving on part 1, the original book, images would have improved my frustration with the old content.
Overall, very interesting book.
June 8, 2024
Vivid archeological reassessment of the Jamestown settlement
Jamestown, the Truth Revealed is a fascinating book about the archeological finds found in the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
As author and archeologist, William Kelso writes, “…our Jamestown archaeological discoveries are more than just discoveries; rather, they are rediscoveries of what men like [George] Percy discovered [in 1607].”
He and his team unearthed artifacts that have been buried for 400 years. Collectively, they tell the story of Jamestown that gives far more depth and understanding to the history of the extreme challenges faced by the first successful colonists.
As Kelso says, “Our unearthing of objects last touched four centuries ago by characters known only from their written words transforms, in a very real sense, our understanding of who they were and what they did. To me, that process comes as close as one can get to time travel. Bare facts come alive—.”
Popular history paints most colonists as lazy. Yet Kelso’s team uncovers substantial evidence to show that Jamestown was far from a lazy man’s haven. The colonists undertook extensive construction projects immediately upon founding the town, including a large fort, church, and warehouse. Jamestown had many artisans and craftsmen who were engaged in creating trade goods to sell back to England. This included a blacksmith making iron goods and a pipe maker who made commemorative pipes of Jamestown to sell as souvenirs in England. There is evidence to show that Catholics were in Jamestown, too, so it wasn’t just a Protestant settlement as history indicates. The story of the starving times in Jamestown’s early years is well known, but it was the result of extreme, extensive drought that hit just as the first colonists settled in the area, not a result of lazy settlers as history relates. This intense time resulted in horrific acts of cannibalism, which the archeological team uncovered in irrefutable evidence of these tragic times.
This book was really eye-opening and helps me reassess and better understand this historical period. I applaud that. Some chapters did drag a lot though with extensive written descriptions of the location of the fort. I’m not a fan of detailed location descriptions in general so this wasn’t the best part of the reading. Yet, one thing I really enjoyed about the book was the large number of photos and illustrations it had. This brought the dig and location to life.
This book is well worth the read.
Jamestown, the Truth Revealed is a fascinating book about the archeological finds found in the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
As author and archeologist, William Kelso writes, “…our Jamestown archaeological discoveries are more than just discoveries; rather, they are rediscoveries of what men like [George] Percy discovered [in 1607].”
He and his team unearthed artifacts that have been buried for 400 years. Collectively, they tell the story of Jamestown that gives far more depth and understanding to the history of the extreme challenges faced by the first successful colonists.
As Kelso says, “Our unearthing of objects last touched four centuries ago by characters known only from their written words transforms, in a very real sense, our understanding of who they were and what they did. To me, that process comes as close as one can get to time travel. Bare facts come alive—.”
Popular history paints most colonists as lazy. Yet Kelso’s team uncovers substantial evidence to show that Jamestown was far from a lazy man’s haven. The colonists undertook extensive construction projects immediately upon founding the town, including a large fort, church, and warehouse. Jamestown had many artisans and craftsmen who were engaged in creating trade goods to sell back to England. This included a blacksmith making iron goods and a pipe maker who made commemorative pipes of Jamestown to sell as souvenirs in England. There is evidence to show that Catholics were in Jamestown, too, so it wasn’t just a Protestant settlement as history indicates. The story of the starving times in Jamestown’s early years is well known, but it was the result of extreme, extensive drought that hit just as the first colonists settled in the area, not a result of lazy settlers as history relates. This intense time resulted in horrific acts of cannibalism, which the archeological team uncovered in irrefutable evidence of these tragic times.
This book was really eye-opening and helps me reassess and better understand this historical period. I applaud that. Some chapters did drag a lot though with extensive written descriptions of the location of the fort. I’m not a fan of detailed location descriptions in general so this wasn’t the best part of the reading. Yet, one thing I really enjoyed about the book was the large number of photos and illustrations it had. This brought the dig and location to life.
This book is well worth the read.
March 31, 2018
This book was different than I was expecting it to be. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I figured it would be about what happened at Jamestown, who was there, etc. And in a sense, it was. It was just from an archaeological standpoint rather than the historical narrative I was expecting.
And again, that's not bad. I'm actually very interested in how the process of archaeology works. So that was really interesting to see how they have to interpret everything they find to figure out what makes sense and constantly go back to primary documents to make sense of things.
And there were some really awesome discoveries. I thought it was fascinating how they broke down every little thing and determined how it got there and why.
But the closer it got to the end, the more repetitive it go. It started getting stale by the last chapter. By then, he'd already talked about the process and what they look for, so to keep reiterating that was monotonous.
And again, that's not bad. I'm actually very interested in how the process of archaeology works. So that was really interesting to see how they have to interpret everything they find to figure out what makes sense and constantly go back to primary documents to make sense of things.
And there were some really awesome discoveries. I thought it was fascinating how they broke down every little thing and determined how it got there and why.
But the closer it got to the end, the more repetitive it go. It started getting stale by the last chapter. By then, he'd already talked about the process and what they look for, so to keep reiterating that was monotonous.
April 14, 2024
I met the author at Jamestown where he was giving a presentation on the site. He was a wonderful speaker so I decided to pick up an autographed copy of his book. I was impressed with the way he presents the material not as a dry discussion on post holes and dirt strata (although that is there for the reader), but as a story, revealing inch by inch the details of what Jamestown looked like, who the characters were and what events took place over four hundred years ago in a small fort, very far for home for people both famous and completely unknown. The book is rich in photos, maps, and illustrations as well as primary source quotes. I felt like I had been given a glimpse into the lives of our English forefathers.
December 5, 2017
This is history "on the ground"--or more accurately, under the ground, as told by the head archaeologist of the extensive Jamestown Virginia excavation project, ongoing for over 20 years. Having recently visited Jamestown, I was fascinated to read here the background about the artifacts I saw in the onsite archaearium and how they inform our understanding of the area's history. Many experts had thought the original Jamestown Fort on the riverbank had been eroded away, but Kelso thought differently and proved it by the team's findings.
It's time Jamestown gets a little more respect--yes, there was incompetence, infighting, cruelty (on both sides, native and settlers) and cannibalism (during the desperate "starving time" winter of 1609-1610), but given the tremendous odds the settlers faced in a wilderness with often hostile natives, and that there were no women present in the colony's early years to temper male aggression, they still succeeded in establishing a permanent colony that included, beginning in 1619, the first expression of English representative government in North America.
It's time Jamestown gets a little more respect--yes, there was incompetence, infighting, cruelty (on both sides, native and settlers) and cannibalism (during the desperate "starving time" winter of 1609-1610), but given the tremendous odds the settlers faced in a wilderness with often hostile natives, and that there were no women present in the colony's early years to temper male aggression, they still succeeded in establishing a permanent colony that included, beginning in 1619, the first expression of English representative government in North America.
February 4, 2018
This was off the shelf and in my hand before I realized it was not about the lost colony of Roanoke... but I thought, what the heck, I'm interested in archaeology...
If you're interested in and/or informed about Jamestown and what's already known about it, this will probably fascinate you. The first half of the book has been published before, and tells of how the author and his team found the remains of the fort, despite a general consensus that it was completely lost in the river. The second half describes the other discoveries since then, and they're pretty interesting.
I read a good bit of this during a day of jury duty, which is not the best for concentration, so I had trouble keeping the names of the principals and the names of the different buildings straight, but I just pushed on to get an overview of what's been found and what they learned from it.
The "blockbuster" revelation of the new discoveries is proof that during the first winter when half the population starved, there was some cannibalism practiced. The image on the cover is a forensic reconstruction based on a damaged skull of a very young woman which showed signs of having been butchered for cooking, and was thrown along with one leg bone into a trash heap. Based upon the chemical analysis of her bones they determined she was in her teens and was a lower-status person because her diet did not show the signs of high protein that higher-status remains exhibit. Since they also assert that the higher status people at the settlement had priority for food supplies, based upon information about who died, she was probably a servant who starved and whose remains were eaten by others.
I found it interesting that the four high-status people buried in the chancel of the church could be identified not only by estimated ages and by items buried with them like captain's staffs, but also by the way the heads were facing compared to the orientation of the church. I did not know that in the 16th and 17th century, members of the clergy were buried with their heads toward the east, so that at the resurrection the would rise and face their congregations, while others were buried with their heads toward the west so they would rise facing the sun. (I think I have that right, it could be the other way around.) This leads to some assertions about a captain of the settlement who they hint might have been a lay clergyman and a secret Catholic.
If you're interested in the archaeology of early America this will definitely be interesting to you.
If you're interested in and/or informed about Jamestown and what's already known about it, this will probably fascinate you. The first half of the book has been published before, and tells of how the author and his team found the remains of the fort, despite a general consensus that it was completely lost in the river. The second half describes the other discoveries since then, and they're pretty interesting.
I read a good bit of this during a day of jury duty, which is not the best for concentration, so I had trouble keeping the names of the principals and the names of the different buildings straight, but I just pushed on to get an overview of what's been found and what they learned from it.
The "blockbuster" revelation of the new discoveries is proof that during the first winter when half the population starved, there was some cannibalism practiced. The image on the cover is a forensic reconstruction based on a damaged skull of a very young woman which showed signs of having been butchered for cooking, and was thrown along with one leg bone into a trash heap. Based upon the chemical analysis of her bones they determined she was in her teens and was a lower-status person because her diet did not show the signs of high protein that higher-status remains exhibit. Since they also assert that the higher status people at the settlement had priority for food supplies, based upon information about who died, she was probably a servant who starved and whose remains were eaten by others.
I found it interesting that the four high-status people buried in the chancel of the church could be identified not only by estimated ages and by items buried with them like captain's staffs, but also by the way the heads were facing compared to the orientation of the church. I did not know that in the 16th and 17th century, members of the clergy were buried with their heads toward the east, so that at the resurrection the would rise and face their congregations, while others were buried with their heads toward the west so they would rise facing the sun. (I think I have that right, it could be the other way around.) This leads to some assertions about a captain of the settlement who they hint might have been a lay clergyman and a secret Catholic.
If you're interested in the archaeology of early America this will definitely be interesting to you.
December 17, 2017
A fascinating read into the rediscovery of the founding of America. The book goes into detail about the results of the archaeological excavation of Jamestown. The results of the excavation show how close America came to failing. It also shows the beginning of the independent spirit of America as many of the British orders were not followed by the original colonist. I recommend this for anyone who has an interest in early American history.
December 31, 2020
This is the first book by Mr. Kelso that I have read and I appreciated the steps by which he figured out the different stages of the Jamestown Colony. I think what struck me most was how tenuous the first decades were. I wonder how many of that first group of settlers left desentdants that have made it into the 21st century.
I wish I had read this when I was still teaching. My 8th graders would have enjoyed some of the details.
I wish I had read this when I was still teaching. My 8th graders would have enjoyed some of the details.
August 12, 2017
Fascinating
Dr. Kelso provides an enjoyable and readable account of the latest archaeological finds at Jamestown. From physical evidence of cannibalism during the famous "Starving Time" to the evidence of Catholic influence, it is clear that these finds add more to the rich tapestry which is the story of the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Dr. Kelso provides an enjoyable and readable account of the latest archaeological finds at Jamestown. From physical evidence of cannibalism during the famous "Starving Time" to the evidence of Catholic influence, it is clear that these finds add more to the rich tapestry which is the story of the first permanent English settlement in North America.
May 9, 2018
A fascinating book about the first settlement at Jamestown, VA with so many discoveries taking place recently. Amazing details of how these archaeologists detected artifacts that confirmed many new details about the settlement and how they survived. Surprises throughout but all documented with ongoing restoration and information.
July 25, 2018
This is excellent. My fascination with Jamestown started as a little girl before I visited the park in the 4th grade back in 1966. I try to read everything I can and have made a couple of trips to the island since the dig began. I can't hear enough about the discoveries.
January 19, 2019
Another book on the Jamestown colony and on the archeological diggings. This one was a little hard to follow on the technical side but the linking between what they have found and the real people there in those early days is quite fascinating.
January 29, 2018
An eye opening account of the original James Town colony right from the ground itself
January 23, 2018
Interesting look at Jamestown through excavation.
April 11, 2018
Great insight into the early workings and politics of the Jamestown fort and detailed explanations of the 21st century dig findings.
May 27, 2025
Book club May 2025-non-fiction. Some interesting parts, but mostly a small text book about the archaeological digs.
May 5, 2022
Interesting analysis of archeological finds at the 1607 and onward site of Jamestown. Sometimes a little detail-heavy, but if you're interested in history and archeology, you'll enjoy seeing how it's interpreted and the lengths to which archeologists go to verify their findings.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews