American Heritage RV Park, Williamsburg, Virginia
Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.” “You have saved our lives…May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.” So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt – still in force today – that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s. Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number. ~ Genesis 47:23-27 This seems to jump ahead to the end of the famine. There are some translation footnotes that tell us that Joseph had removed the people from their land into the cities to finish out the famine years, thus making it easier to care for them. But when they returned to what was now Pharaoh’s land, they were no longer property owners, but tenants, who paid their rent with a fifth of their crops. Did you notice that the Egyptian priests and Joseph’s family were the only ones able to own property? I thought this a good picture of our relationship with God. We are to rely on him for our provision, much like the people learned to rely on Pharaoh. In return, He asks for us to be cheerful givers back to Him, as a means of showing our gratitude. Do you tithe? Do you return anything back to Him out of gratitude? If you do, is it because of a sense of obligation, or out of love for Him?
We never realized that there are two Jamestown’s here. One is run by our National Park Service in conjunction with the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. That’s Historic Jamestowne (yes, they spell it the old way with an ‘e’). The other, we chose not to visit this trip (it would’ve cost us an additional $40). That’s the Jamestown Settlement. The settlement is near the original Historic Jamestown, but it’s a living-history museum representing 17th century Virginia history and culture. They even have a couple of ships you can look at.
Today, we visited the National Park Service. It’s the location of the actual original settlement and there are archeological digs going on all the time here. We were told that they find new stuff daily!
Shortly after we arrived, we were able to take advantage of a Ranger walk, which was interesting, but mostly he had us read the information boards along the walk and then talk about what we learned. We finished exploring the site on our own. They had some cool videos that fast-forwarded through some digs.
So here’s Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, in pictures! Enjoy! Learn stuff!
They had a really long wall covered with an historical timeline. Here’s a small portion of it:
We were pretty amazed at the brick work from back then!
So much like today!
The black tarp covers an current excavation site.
Note the rectangle on the floor up front. Sir George is buried there. He’s been sleeping undisturbed since 1627. Can you imagine how excited they were when they found him?!?
It was shown very fast-forward. : )
But we need the reminder that those who founded our nation endured some pretty horrific times!
We suspect they put it in this pile, then once they’re finished with an area,
they cart it all back and fill in their hole.
After we finished the actual site areas, we took advantage of the five-mile bike/drive road they have around Jamestown Island, which is still part of the National Park. There were eleven stops along the way that shared information about the vegetation, as well as the past history.
Normally, there’s someone(s) here working, but today they had a major electrical failure,
and electricians were there working on it.
Me? I’m wondering . . . if this is supposed to be a reenactment, what do they need electricity for??? : )
We’re finished with our bike ride, but we hadn’t seen the other museum that talks about the archaeology aspect of this place. On the way, we watched them at work. And as we watched, the lady in the pink hat found something – a bit of different sort of dirt. Meant something to her, but we didn’t get it.
It’s grown a lot since it was planted!
The deaths at the hands of the Indians were to those who dared to venture outside the fort to search for food.
And that’s all there is to share until we get through the coming weekend. So sorry to leave this day on such a dismal note. ☹
We spend the first twelve months of our children’s lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and be quiet. ~ Phyllis Diller
My doctor gave me six months to live, but when I couldn’t pay the bill he gave me six months more. ~ Walter Mathau
The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets. ~ Al McGuire
A day without laughter is a day wasted. ~ Charlie Chaplin