America's first multicultural village?

Discoveries let Jamestown museum give equal play to Colonists, Indians, AfricansEvidence at the fort site made it clear that Jamestown was a trading community tied into the worldwide economy, he said.

This idea clashes with earlier notions. Around the time of the last Jamestown anniversary--in 1957, when this museum was created--the settlement was envisioned as a rural English village transplanted to the New World, Davidson said.

"What we're now seeing is Jamestown as an example of a new thing--a trading post/commercial center that is analogous to the kinds of establishments being set up in Asia and Africa by the Dutch and Spanish and Portuguese."