The Science of Jamestown
Historians had long thought that the site of James Fort had eroded over time into the James River, but excavations beginning in the mid-1990s revealed dark pockets of soil in the area where the fort had once stood. These pockets contained organic material, the remains of wooden posts that had long since rotted away. To the archeologists who made the discovery, these postholes confirm that only a corner of the south wall, the wall closest to the water, eroded away.