Fill in Pit 3 in the east bastion contained a surgeons tool. It is a spatula mundani, so named by 17th century surgeon John Woodall, who takes credit for devising it and illustrates it in his 1617 edition of The Surgeons Mate. Woodall apparently sent a surgeons chest, probably containing a spatula mudani, to Jamestown by way of his servant George Liste. This gift was recorded in a list of instructions to Sit Thomas Gates for the Virginia Council in May of 1608.

"There beinge one George Liste servant to John Woodall and sent ouer by him with a chest of cheurgery sufficiently furnished we require you to give license to Willm Wilson his fellow yf the said George Liste doe stay with you to come backe in this passage the better to enfourme us what medicines and drugges are fittest to be pvided for the use of the colonie against ye next supply."




The dual purpose iron tool is just over 12" long and consists of a spatula at one end. The opposite end is a split and widened "spoon" with a rounded terminal knob. The term mundani comes from the word mundify which is identified in a 1604 dictionary as meaning "to make clean." The tools purpose is

"to serve upon any occasion of extreme costivness (constipation) . . . so that no purging medicine neither upward nor downward administered or taken will work"

The "spoon" end of the instrument was to be used to withdraw the "hard excrements" whereas the spatula end was probably for stirring preparations and for applying ointments and plasters.