Jamestown looks to preserve historic church as it adapts to climate change

Whether it is through the use of cutting-edge radar techniques, advanced DNA forensics or working with descendant communities, Jamestown Rediscovery is finding new ways to enhance preservation and further public understanding of the nation’s earliest history.

The modern research techniques in use by the local archeology team manages to stay at the forefront of a field that looks more and more like detective work year after year. However, one factor that continues to hinder research is the effect of rising sea levels.

One area repeatedly affected by changing environmental conditions is the 17th century church tower and its surrounding churchyard on Jamestown Island. One of the latest efforts to preserve the site seeks to install a drainage system — while being careful not to damage burial sites around the church.

“There’s a small aspect of sea level rise/climate change in that the two-to-four inches of rain that we’re getting in single events, which are coming more and more often, inundate the sites specifically around the church, which is on fairly flat ground,” said Dave Givens, director of archaeology for Jamestown Rediscovery, the project tasked with investigating and preserving the nation’s first permanent English settlement established in 1607.

Because the site isn’t properly draining, water collects in the brick structure, Givens said. Standing water can be particularly destructive when temperatures dip below freezing.

A recently proposed drainage system would direct water away from and out of the site, which Givens said has been a long-standing problem. Excavations within and around the church, from 2016 to 2019, have allowed the team to study and understand the hydrology of the site.

The added drainage system would be another part of the ongoing mission to preserve the area in and around the church tower. The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation kicked up its efforts last year after the historic site was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2022 list of America’s most endangered places.

Increased inundation, land subsidence, extreme storm events, a rising aquifer and aging infrastructure are all contributing to challenges on the island. A project last year added 96,000 tons of granite to the seawall in one effort to help.

In 2013 and 2014, Preservation Virginia, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources worked together to help safeguard the church tower. Repairs were made to the structure’s damaged mortar and bricks during the collaboration.

However, because there is no roof on the tower, preservationists have been working on plans for a hidden roof that would keep rain away, in the form of a glass roof. Eventually, the goal is to also put in a glass floor, Givens said.

The unique concern when adding the drains at the church site will be the multiple historic burials dating from the 17th through the early 19th centuries.

The team doesn’t intend to excavate the remains; the ultimate goal is to avoid that, Givens said. If the project receives funding, archeologists will make an effort to build the drain around the burial sites, but the fact that the site includes a church cemetery means that the team had to apply for a burial permit with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources before any construction may take place.

“Our key methodology always at Jamestown when we’re digging is preservation,” Givens said. “Should we not be able to avoid a burial in the excavation of the trench that goes around the tower and down slope, then we will have to mitigate or excavate this.”

Excavation entails working inside a tent to shield the excavation from outside factors, including weather and animals. During burial excavations, researchers also wear hazmat suits.

“We can work in the context of the public being around us, but also honor and sort of shield the public from the excavation of human remains because it’s not a circus. We honor those who lived and died at the beginning of our nation,” Givens said. “Public archeology in the process of forensics and the recovery of human remains is paramount to our program.”

Once researchers excavate, the recovered burial remains would go to a DNA lab like the one at the University of Connecticut. Researchers drive the remains to the lab and record the process so that everything is open and transparent — and ethical. However, some of the individual burial sites are believed to be compromised.

The construction of later iterations of the church may have impacted the burials, and it’s most likely that there are only partial remains due to the foundations cutting through over the years, which Givens said is common at historical burial sites. Some burials are so far degraded that researchers won’t be able to recover any DNA, which in and of itself has gone down in price significantly over the years.

“When we first started dabbling in DNA/ancient DNA, it was 10 grand just to sequence an individual,” Givens said. “Now it’s less than a thousand.”

One of the criteria for grant funding is getting a burial permit. One of the requirements is that the research team documents damages, such as the effects from Hurricane Michael in 2018.

The English colony of Jamestown laid the groundwork for government and life during the infancy of the nation. The church grounds were once the site of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and as the years pass, the effort to preserve the last surviving above-ground structure from when Jamestown was the capital of Virginia will be significant.

“It’s not what you find; it’s what you find out,” Givens said. “Part of the finding out is the journey that you go through to identify the people and working with descendant communities. And then opening that world up to our visitors.”

Dominic Catacora, 757-798-9833, dominic.catacora@virginiamedia.com