The story of the King's Touch tokens continues. This is the 5th installment. One more to go after this.
Keep in mind that this is a rough draft of a book chapter, so it will be edited (several times, I am sure). Previous installments were posted on 3/12, 2/26, 2/3, and 1/29.
... So, how does all
this relate to Jamestown? Quite simply, a whopping fifty-nine King’s Touch
tokens were excavated within the fort. This is the largest find from any site
worldwide. Thirty-two pieces were found in strata that dated to the early fort
period; hence, these copper tickets predated the reign of Charles I as the
Brits had originally suggested. This remarkable discovery begs the question:
Did the Piscataway tokens come from Jamestown?
Part of the
answer came in 1997 when a treasure hunter discovered two King’s Touch tokens
at an native village believed to be Werowocomoco. This was where Chief Powhatan
had resided until 1609. Captain John Smith nearly met his fate at Werowocomoco
when Pocahontas laid her head upon his, thereby saving him from being clubbed
to death. The village was only a dozen miles north of Jamestown along the York
River; the colonists had gone there at least six times to trade before it was
deserted.
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| Excavations at Jamestown |
The digs at
Werowocomoco revealed the graves of two native children. Their remains were
laced with four thousand white and blue glass beads, plus one chevron bead. The
two King’s Touch tokens were holed twice, just as found at Piscataway. It is
believed that the beads and tokens made up a complex necklace. Several tools
were also found including an iron hammer, a copper skillet, and a copper spoon
– a sacrificial deposit not unlike those seen in ancient England. All told, it
was an important burial.
Subsequent
excavations have suggested that the burials were made some years after 1609,
perhaps as late as 1650. Apparently, the natives returned to the site to bury
the children. This finding makes it difficult to determine where and when the
tokens were traded to the natives. In the Narratives,
Captain John Smith reported trading copper for maize on several occasions. In
addition, there was pilfering among the colonists for secretive exchanges. Were
these tokens part of these actions?
Along these
lines, several other King’s Touch tokens have been discovered in tidewater
Virginia. In 1976 a token was found just north of Jamestown Island in a small
community known as Pasbehay (named for the native tribe who lived nearby). The
token was discovered along with a Scottish two-pence and some pottery sherds
dumped in a refuge pit that bordered a meager earthfast dwelling dating to the
second quarter of the seventeenth century.
Another King’s
Touch token was unearthed in the plowzone of the Flowerdew plantation site in
the mid-1990s. It was found near a bake oven that was associated with Abraham
Peirsey’s residence after 1624. A lead cloth seal from England dated 1637 was
found nearby; so, the token could have been lost anytime during this period.
All told, twenty-two copper pieces have been found outside Jamestown.
It is worth a
moment to consider how important copper was to the Powhatans. Copper was highly
valued for its reflective surfaces and red color. Consequently, Algonquian chiefs
and priests hoarded the metal as a symbol of power. Before the arrival of the
English colonists, the Powhatans traded with tribes from the Blue Ridge
Mountains to the Great Lakes. But with the settlement at Jamestown, everything
changed. The English brought lots of copper to trade.
Early on, the Powhatans were willing to trade baskets full of corn for copper “trinkets.” For the natives, copper was magical. Tubular beads and holed plates of copper were gifted to those who earned respect within the tribe. As such, copper ornaments were a symbol of status and power. It was not unusual to find copper buried in single grave and ossuary sites. Here, we have seen that the copper tickets were part of complex necklaces. These finding remind us that imbuing metallic items with occult power is universal; the English bent coins, and the Algonquians fashioned copper amulets.
