Tobacco Seed Yields Clues About Jamestown

Source from:  BY ANDREW PETKOFSKY TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jan 11, 2007  01/12/2007

Found in a well, it may be strain that became popular in England A 400-year-old tobacco seed found in a well at Jamestown last summer may shed new light on the history of Virginia's first cash crop, scientists said Tuesday. The seed, discovered in a microscopic analysis of plant remains in a well that was used as a garbage pit between 1610 and 1617, was pristine enough that scientists may be able to test whether it was the South American strain whose leaves became wildly popular with smokers in England. If so, one of Jamestown's tiniest archaeological artifacts may also be one of its most important. William Kelso, who supervised the well's excavation as archaeology director for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, said he was thrilled when the seed turned up in an analysis financed through a grant from National Geographic magazine. "It's smaller than a grain of pepper," Kelso said. "I just thought how surprised I was that something that small could have such an amazing impact on the world and, certainly, the state of Virginia." Steve Archer, an archaeobotanist for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, conducted the analysis financed by a $5,000 grant. By filtering plant remains discovered in the 15-foot-deep well, he found not only three tobacco seeds (two were charred and not well-preserved) but also remains of more than 30 plant species. Nearly all were native species, including blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries, persimmon, cherries and grapes -- which led Archer to conjecture the colonists ate local food rather than supplies shipped from England or elsewhere. "More research needs to be conducted, but it appears that the colonists were trying to live off the land," Archer said in a news release. He said the wet environment below the water line in the well shaft helped preserve seeds by keeping out oxygen. Tobacco is important in Jamestown's history because John Rolfe, a colonist who arrived in 1610, experimented with growing tobacco. He had so much success with a South American species, Nicotiana tabacum, that it became a major cash crop. The successful cultivation of what became known as "the golden weed" clearly helped the colonial outpost, founded in 1607, survive as the first permanent English settlement in America. The seeds and other plant remains were recovered last summer from the well discovered inside the north corner of the original James Fort. Archaeologists have determined the well was dug after 1610 and filled in sometime before a chimney, part of a building addition, was built over it 1617. Among more than 100,000 artifacts recovered from the well shaft were weapons, articles of clothing, pottery and a ceremonial axe-bladed pike, known as a halberd, associated with Lord De La Warr, a colonial governor who arrived in Jamestown in 1610. Enditem