The Birthplace of America

Today we visited Historic Jamestowne, the actual site of the first British settlement in America.

The archaeologist who led our tour group was at pains to emphasize that Jamestown beats Plymouth by 13 years, even though the Pilgrims always get pride of place in history textbooks. (Priority envy, I guess.) Still, if you make things specific enough, you can find a "first" or an "oldest" for any old thing. Wikipedia, for example, claims that although Plymouth was indeed founded second, it became the "oldest continuously inhabited English settlement" in the US. The archaeologist was also at pains to point out that someone has lived at Jamestown ever since its founding, though I didn't understand the point of that honor until I came home and read the Wikipedia site quoted above.

Ah, America.

Plymouth: "I'm older!"
Jamestown: "Nuh uh! It's just that everyone likes you because of that dumb Thanksgiving story. I'm really older."
Plymouth: "Fine, well at least I've been continually inhabited!"
Jamestown: "People have lived here since 1607, too! I'm older on all counts!"

Britain: "I'm sorry, are you guys fighting about who dates back farther into the 17th century? You do realize that there's a reason it's the seventeenth century, don't you? People have been living here since before there even was any such thing as a century."

In any case, it was a really interesting place to visit, and I snapped this picture of part of the reconstructed fort and a nice marker on a really really old (early 17th century!) grave.