Seeds and plant remains preserved in a well at America's first permanent English settlement suggest the Jamestown colonists were not just gentlemen with few wilderness survival skills, as they are often portrayed, but tried to live off the land by gathering berries and nuts.
At least one tobacco seed, possibly representing the earliest known evidence of the cultivation at Jamestown of the cash crop that helped the settlement survive financially, was also discovered among samples from the 17th-century well.
Archaeobotanist Steve Archer will include results of his microscopic analysis of the plant matter in presentations at the Society of Historical Archaeology conference that begins Wednesday in Williamsburg.
There are a bunch of links to articles on the excavations here. Good stuff, make sure to click through.