EXCAVATING THE INDIAN VILLAGE OF 

 PATAWOMEKE (POTOMAC) 



By T. D. STEWART 



Assistant Curator, Division of Physical Anthropology, 



U. S. National Museum 



In describing his trip up the Potomac river in 1608 Capt. John 

 Smith states that one of the Indian villages on the west shore, named 

 Patawomeke, had 160 to 200 able men (upward of 1,000 inhabitants) ; 

 it seems thus to have been the largest village along the river at the 

 time. According to Smith it was at Patawomeke that Captain Argall 

 abducted Pocahontas in 161 2. We learn from this source also that in 

 1622 Captain Crashaw spent some time here trading. After this we 

 find little information regarding the village. The date of its abandon- 

 ment remains unknown. 



Inspection of Smith's map of the Potomac River, on which Pata- 

 womeke appears as a king's residence, shows that this village was 

 situated on the north side of what is now Potomac Creek, near 

 Marlboro Point. Stafford County, Va. The Virginia land records 

 indicate that the land constituting the "Potomac neck" was patented 

 around the middle of the seventeenth century. About this time "Marl- 

 borough town," with a court house, came into existence less than a 

 mile away from the Indian site. Thus it appears that the Indians 

 rapidly gave way to such famous colonial families as the Brents, 

 Fitzhughs, Masons, and Mercers. 



For many years students of Indian history have visited Marlboro 

 Point to obtain potsherds and other artifacts. Archeologically the 

 old village site here is important because of its known contact with 

 the Jamestown colonists. No extensive excavations were undertaken, 

 however, until 1935, when the late William J. Graham, Presiding 

 Judge of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, 

 Washington, became interested. Working intermittently during the 

 next 2 years, until his death on November 10, 1937, Judge Graham 

 succeeded in locating three large ossuaries, two small burial pits, 

 many post holes, trenches, etc. From the largest ossuary and one of 

 the small burial pits Judge Graham recovered European objects : glass 

 beads, iron, copper, and a silver cup made at the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century. In another ossuary he found what is probably 

 the largest human skull yet recorded. 



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