An excavation provides tantalizing hints about a little-known group that celebrated Thanksgiving two years before the New England Pilgrims.
Berkeley Plantation, VA: The autumn sun was rapidly dropping toward the broad James River when two pieces of reddish baked clay, each not much larger than a thumbnail, emerged from the Virginia mud., an archaeologist from the UK’s University of Bristol, gave the fragments a lick with his tongue and peered closely at tiny patterns incised into the objects.
A remarkable cache of papers discovered in the late nineteenth century details plans for the colony, listing supplies down to the required 5.5 tons of beer and 127 pounds of bacon and horsemeat.Among the requirements was an assembly house as well as 400 acres of common land to be set aside for grazing. The Berkeley settlers were also to gather together daily to eat and pray.
A broken clay pipe found during the excavation dates to the first half of the 1600s. Colonists arrived at Berkeley in December 1619.A Richmond newspaper crowed in a headline that “President Concedes: Virginia Receives Thanksgiving Credit.” In 1620, more settlers and supplies arrived at Berkeley Hundred from England.
“Chaps!” Horton called out to the team after examining the maps on a laptop. “The answer lies in the soil! Let’s dig!” Within hours, a small trench revealed a handful of Native American arrowheads, as well as native and colonial pottery.
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