kitchen utensils and fireplace accessories, furniture hardware, lighting
devices, eating and drinking vessels, tableware, costume accessories and
footwear, medical equipment, horse gear, coins and weights, and many
items relating to household and town industries, transportation, trade,
and fishing.

These artifacts provide invaluable information concerning the everyday
life and manners of the first Virginia settlers. A brief description of
many of them is given on the following pages.

Excavated artifacts reveal that the Jamestown colonists built their
houses in the same style as those they knew in England, insofar as local
materials permitted. There were differences, however, for they were in a
land replete with vast forests and untapped natural resources close at
hand which they used to advantage. The Virginia known to the first
settlers was a carpenter's paradise, and consequently the early
buildings were the work of artisans in wood. The first rude shelters,
the split-wood fencing, the clapboard roof, puncheon floors, cupboards,
benches, stools, and wood plows are all examples of skilled working with
wood.


Houses

Timber at Jamestown was plentiful, so many houses, especially in the
early years, were of frame construction. During the first decade or two,
house construction reflected a primitive use found ready at hand, such
as saplings for a sort of framing, and use of branches, leafage, bark,
and animal skins. During these early years--when the settlers were
having such a difficult time staying alive--mud walls, wattle and daub,