Understanding Native American Structures

Wooden Platform

This arrangement of postholes measures 6.9 by 15.4 feet. Unlike any of the oval-shaped houses at the site, Structure 3 may not have been a habitation structure. It may have been a platform comparable to one depicted by White overlooking a field in the Village of Secotan and described by Harriot:

In their corne fields they builde as yt weare a fcaffolde wher on they fett a cottage like to a rownde chaire, figniffied by F. wherin they place one to watche.for there are fuche number of fowles, and beafts, that vnlefs they keepe the better watche, they would foone deuoure all their corne. For which caufe the watchemanmaketh continual cryes and noyfe.

View larger version of image

This image is a section of "The Tovvne of Secotan" an engraving by Theodor De Bry (printed 1590) based on watercolor by John White. (Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.)