More than 400 years ago, the English colonist and explorer John Smith wrote in his journal that there were Indigenous villages along a major river in what is now Virginia. But the reported sites of the villages were later forgotten, and their existence was disputed.
Now, archaeologists excavating along the Rappahannock River have discovered thousands of artifacts — including beads, pieces of pottery, stone tools and pipes for tobacco — that they think come from the villages described by Smith centuries ago.
