In the seventies, Colonial Williamsburg acquired the James River plantation, Carter’s Grove. In order to show plantation life in the 18th century, the Foundation needed to establish the locations of the outbuildings and other features of the original plantation. They discovered much more, the remains of an early seventeenth century settlement, Martin’s Hundred. Since the discovery of the original fort at Jamestown was years in the future, this was the first archaeological evidence of those early settlers, including evidence of the Indian attack in 1622. The book chronicles the events surrounding the discoveries up to 1982. Written by archaeologist Ivor Noël Hume, the book reads like a mystery with clues, false trails and a lot of research in American and European museums and libraries.

The book is enhanced with numerous plans of the site as well as photographs of some of the finds, unfortunately in black and white and not in color. Noël Hume explains everything in clarity, whether talking about bones, pipes or pieces of pottery or glass. There are footnotes, index and a very nice bibliography. However this is not a dry and scholarly account, but a very readable and exciting story. ( )