Palisades

Palisades. . , “our extreme toil in bearing and planting palisades so strained and bruised us, and our continual labor in the extremity of heat had so weakened us” – John Smith, These replicated sections of James Fort’s palisades are set directly above the original fort wall remains. Archaeologists identified the clay-filled original trenches dug for setting the posts and the dark soil stains of the timber posts. , In the spring of 1607, the colonists, then under attack from the Virginia Indians, constructed the triangular fort enclosure in just 19 days. The projected measurements of each of these walls precisely match a 1610 description by Secretary of the Colony William Strachey who wrote that the east and west palisade walls were each 100 yards long, while the south palisade was 140 yards. Half of the south palisade along the edge of the river was lost to shoreline erosion. , Captions: , Soil stains of decayed timber wall posts (palisades), James Fort. , Palisade soil stains, north bulwark, James Fort. , Scuppet – original palisade entrenching tool found at James Fort - on display in the Archaearium Museum. , Archaeologist uncovering wall trench and artist’s rendering of James Fort palisade section.