The Virginia Adventure: Roanoke to James Towne (The Virginia Bookshelf Series) - Softcover

Hume, Ivor Noel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813917581 ISBN 13: 9780813917580

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 1997

Synopsis

In The Virginia Adventure, Noel Hume turns his attention to the two earliest English settlements in Virginia, Roanoke and James Towne, with fascinating results. Combining information gathered through excavations of the sites with contemporary accounts from journals, letters, and official records of the period, the author illuminates the exploits of Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain John Smith, and Powhatan; the life and death of Pocahontas; and the dissapearance of the Roanoke colony.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Ivor Noel Hume is one of the world's most elegant speakers and writers speakers and on archaeology. His record of successful work in this field is brilliant and America is fortunate that he has spent so much of his time digging up our historical record. Now he has written about his experiences in tidewater Virginia in the areas where our national history began. His book is graceful, witty; well presented and informative. He adds a new dimension to the Williamsburg area."

-- James A. Michener

"Martin's Hundred provides a lively narrative of modern ingenuity. We follow a sleuth and his expert staff through all the false starts and shrewd hunches of a thrilling 'find.' We discover along the way that archaeology today requires the cooperation of an international community of scientists. And ultimately, we augment our understanding of early American agriculture, early American warfare, and the tragic initial contact between Europeans and Indians in colonial times."

-- Michael Kammen, author of Mystic Chords of Memory

"Martin's Hundred balances scholarship and popular reporting...an exceptionally handsome book."

-- Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek

"No one interested in archaeology, early America, or detective investigations should miss this fascinating volume. Noel Hume's well illustrated and elegant foray into the past is, quite simply one of the best books on American archaeology yet written."

-- Brian Fagan, Washington Post Book World

"Ivor Noel Hum unfolds a fascinating tale with the flair of a mystery novel....[His] beautiful use of language conveys the challenge and excitement of the detective work that is leading archaeologists and historians toward a better knowledge of English Colonial life in Virginia."

-- Stanley South, Christian Science Monitor

From the Inside Flap

ive years, as writer, lecturer, and chief archaeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, Ivor Noel Hume has enlivened for us the material culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. After his warmly praised book Martin's Hundred, he now turns to the two earliest English outposts in Virginia -- Roanoke and James Towne -- and pieces together revelatory information extrapolated from the shards and postholes of excavations at these sites with contemporary accounts found in journals, letters, and official records of the period. He illuminates narratives that have a mythic status in our early history: the exploits of Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain John Smith, and Powhatan; the life and death of Pocahontas; and the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. He recounts a recent important excavation at Roanoke where he and his colleagues found the work site of a metallurgist named Joachim Gans, whose findings about the mineral wealth of Virginia helped to convince London merchants that America was a worthy risk Th

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0813917581
• ISBN 13: 9780813917580
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 491