Several archaeologists say they have evidence that 17th century colonists may have built a stockade across the Virginia Peninsula to keep Indians off land claimed by the settlers.
The discovery was made by a company hired to survey the route of a natural gas pipeline.The company's find represents "the best preserved evidence" of the fence, said Alain Outlaw, principal archaeologist for Espey, Huston & Associates.
The announcement was timed to coincide with Virginia Archaeology Week, which began Saturday, and with Columbus Day. Some plan to observe the holiday as symbolizing the persecution of Indians.
"The palisade is an intriguing find as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America," Outlaw said Friday. "It's a tangible reminder of the systematic displacement of native Americans from their lands."
The company made the discovery in April 1991, he said, but kept quiet to avoid publicity and possible vandalism while the pipeline was installed through a tunnel to preserve the pallisade site. The pipeline was recently completed.
While excavating in an area thought to be the site of Colonial Virginia's official gallows, archaeologists found stains in a 28-foot section of soil.
The stains appear to be remains of a trench that contained a wall of side-by-side posts that may have reached 7 feet above ground level.
The existence of the 1634 palisade, which stretched 6 miles from the York to the James rivers, is confirmed by many documents of the period.
The fence was built to keep Indians out and preserve the lower portion of the peninsula for colonists and their livestock, but historians say the goal may have been more symbolic than practical.
Indians massacred colonists in 1622 and the palisade may have served largely to restore confidence and peace of mind to the settlers.
Men who worked on the palisade were rewarded with plots of land nearby to settle on, according to documents, so the fence may have been a key factor in the location of the communities of Middle Plantation and - in the next century - Williamsburg.
David Muraca, a staff archaeologist for Colonial Williamsburg, said it is hard to be sure whether the findings at the pipeline site, or any of three other possible palisade sites in Williamsburg, are actual remains of the 1634 barrier or just remains of smaller, more local fences.
But Outlaw said topography and construction methods support his view that the pipeline evidence definitely is connected with the original palisade.